Destiny: Fall of Light
by Sir Chewy
Summary: During the Red War, a Hunter named Seja is unable to defend the city while her fireteam do what they can. After the attack they get separated. Her fireteam is together on Earth, but Seja is brought to the Reef. All three Guardians must work through their situations in order to reunite and save the last city.
1. Prologue & Backstory

During the SIVA crisis an Awoken Hunter that goes by the name of Seja investigated the past of races such as the Eliksni, Hive, Cabal, and Vex. She did not get permission to perform any of her actions, and therefore left the city.

She has called upon her old fireteam, a Warlock named John, and a Titan named Heft, in order to discover the den of a Eliksni house known as the House of Hunters. She led her fireteam to a lone spire in the abandoned wastes of South America.

* * *

As an author's note I would like to say this:

Most of this story will not be accurate to the lore. I also took parts from the game's lore and turned them into my own version, such as the House of Crows. In the lore Uldren worked with the House of Kings, but I felt like creating them would be cool. So remember that, and don't hate me for not being accurate to the lore. Also, another thing, there will be a sequel coming out some time when I finish it, but for now this story is complete. Enjoy reading.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

ATACAMA DESERT

ABANDONED WASTES, SOUTH AMERICA

Three ships flew over the Atacama desert. Three ships advanced toward the spire. Three ships opened fire.

The House of Hunters decided to spread their territory on Earth, soon claiming small areas of each continent. The three ships began to circle the spire that they called a base.

"Weapons ready," said the Hunter, Seja.

"Copy that," said the Warlock, John.

"Uh-huh," said the Titan, Heft.

The ships fired their weapons, tearing apart the metallic structures of the base. They each fired at one of the four turrets on the sides of the base, dodging the incoming fire.

Seja looked out of the window of her Awoken fighter and saw a large Eliksni, wearing the armour of a Vandal, kick a Dreg out of the last turret. The Vandal got in and fired at Heft, piercing his ship near its engines.

"Heft!" Seja screamed, quickly forgetting Guardians can't die if they have their ghost.

Heft's ship slammed into the sand about 40 metres from the base of the spire. Moments later he materialized in front of the burning husk of his Arcadia-class jumpship, which was freshly painted red just this morning.

The entrance to the spire opened, and an Eliksni spider-walker stepped into view, being escorted by Dregs. Heft pulled out his Häkke assault rifle and began gunning down the Dregs.

A Dreg was hit in the face, and it's head exploded into a white spray of the ghastly Ether that they need to survive. Another was hit by five shots to the chest, collapsing and spraying up the sand as it fell.

Four Dregs on the left side of the walker fell, after being pierced by the deadly bullets of a Häkke weapon. All that was left was the walker. And Heft knew exactly how to deal with it.

Heft stowed his assault rifle, and pulled his prized rocket launcher off of his back. He called it the Two-Tailed Fox. Each rocket loaded into it would fire two individual projectiles; one solar, and one void.

John looked out of his ship's window and waited for the perfect moment. He watched as two rockets fired from Heft blew the plating off one of the walker's legs. The walker then collapsed, and exposed it's core at the front.

John pushed his ship into gear and it flew towards the walker; firing every gun it has into its exposed core. A wave of arc energy blew sand off the ground. The walker attempted to stand up, but failed. Once it collapsed again; the main gun blew off, and fire came out of the sides of the walker.

With the walker dead, Heft ran towards the entrance of the spire, only to be stopped by Dregs once more. He pulled out his shotgun, one he couldn't use in front of any other Guardians except for his fireteam. His shotgun was infused with SIVA, a Golden Age nanotechnology that caused the extinction of the Iron Lords, and the quarantine of the Plaguelands.

A Dreg leaped at him, and he slid under it, firing the shotgun into its stomach. He got up to his feat and fired at the head of another Dreg, causing Ether to fly into the air.

Before he could kill another, Seja's ship flew over and blew up the remaining Dregs, before she herself materialized onto the battlefield.

Seja exited her ship in front of Heft, and pulled her favourite weapon out. A hand-cannon that she found joy in spinning before she fired. It was a working replica of The Last Word, the weapon used by the legendary Gunslinger, Shin Malphur. She spun it in a full circle in her hand, and shot off the head of the only remaining Dreg.

Then came John. John materialized next to Heft and pulled out the slug rifle he wrestled from the hands of a Cabal.

"So, that's it?" Heft asked, his raspy Exo voice rang over the sound of an approaching sandstorm.

"Well, this is just an outpost," Seja said.

"For just an outpost it's pretty well defended," said John, the only human in the fireteam.

"You call that well defended?" Heft responded.

"Titans always see the fight that enemies put up and think they're terrible," Seja said, "even when they aren't."

The team entered the base of the spire. A large circular room with crates stacked up on the sides.

Before the three reached the lift to the next floor; John's Ghost, Moira, appeared next to him.

"I'm getting an emergency call from the tower, it's important," she said to John.

"Well if it's an emergency call, it obviously is important," John joked.

Moira turned into a glowing blue ball wither her eye at the centre, the rest of her pyramidal pieces floating around the ball.

"This is an emergency transmission to all Guardians in the solar system, the city is under attack!" the voice of the Vanguard Commander rang out around the room, "I repeat, the Red Legion is assaulting the city, we need you at once!"

"It just cuts out there," Moira said, reassembling into her normal Ghost form.

"I swear if Zavala is messing with us," Heft said.

"You know the Vanguard, Zavala is dead serious. Cayde is the one who would be pulling our leg," John replied, "and Ikora is the healthy compromise in the middle."

Seja found a pike and climbed onto the front to sit down. She took off her helmet. Her face was a light blueish colour, her eyes glowing light blue, her lips were a faint yellow. She had markings on her face in the form of a black line going down her nose, two lines diagonal on her cheeks symmetrical with each other, and another black line on her chin.

Her hair was medium length, but it was slicked into spikes on the right side, the rest smooth; jet black.

John took off his helmet, his brown hair shaved on the sides and swept up on the front. He had no facial hair or tattoos, and his eyes were gray.

Heft took off his helmet, his head white with small spikes pointing backwards on the sides of his head. He had a blood red line running down, from his forehead to his chin. His eyes red and his mouth glowing orange as he talked.

"Well what should we do now?" He asked.

"What do you think? We need to defend our home!" John responded, raising his voice.

"Yeah, but what about Seja," Heft looked at her; her face emotionless as she watching them bicker.

About a year before, Seja went on a journey, cutting off her communication with the city and going about her business alone. She went to old Eliksni, Hive, Vex, and Cabal bases and settlements, just to learn everything she could about their enemies. Seja couldn't go back to the city after that.

"The city is your home," she said, "but it is no longer mine."

"I get you can't show your face back there and all, but without the city, the Traveler is vulnerable," John responded, "and if there is no Traveler, there is no light. And if there is no light, there is no Guardians."

"They don't need me. And I think I can handle finding the House of Hunters' base on my own."

"Alright then. Goodbye Seja, see you when the city is saved," is all John said to her before turning away and putting his helmet back on.

Heft simply saluted before following John.


	3. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

THE LAST CITY

THE LAST CITY, EARTH

John flew as fast as he could; almost ignoring all the trees as he flew over.

"If we crash, and the Traveler blows up, it's your fault!" Heft yelled from the back of John's ship.

A few seconds later they were clear of the clouds. Rain spattered the fast moving ship as it slowed. John took a few minutes to take in what he was seeing.

The tower where the Guardians lived was in flames. There was smoke billowing out of the buildings in the city, and there was an entire fleet of Cabal warships and carriers hovering above. In the distance he could see a giant claw looking thing headed towards the Traveler. Definitely not good.

"Well buddy I'm afraid that we should part ways," John yelled to Heft.

"What do you mean?" Heft yelled back at John.

"I mean, you're no use up here, you need to be on the ground, or the tower, or wherever. As long as you are in a place where you can fight."

"Alright then; if I die, remember you owe me ramen."

"But that doesn't make any sense!"

Heft faded out of the ship and John continued flying, running into a squadron of Cabal Threshers.

TOWER PLAZA

THE LAST CITY, EARTH

Heft materialized at the tower plaza, surrounded by dead Cabal. And they were much uglier than he was used to. Their armour was red and gray, and their helmets were white and red with some sort of fin coming off the top.

Before he could fully examine the dead Legionaries, a giant block-y ball smashed into the floor next to him. It disintegrated and left three Cabal Legionaries. He shot one in the head, causing oil to spray out of the armour around its neck.

Before he could shoot the next one a blade appeared on its forearm and it stabbed Heft through the chest. The Legionaries moved on toward the back of the plaza where he saw Commander Zavala step out.

Heft's ghost, Console, appeared in front of his dead body and his shell spun, releasing a surge of light. He regained consciousness and stood up, seeing Zavala blast a Legionary off the steps near him. Heft ran toward the last Legionary and slammed his fist into it's back, causing it to disappear into a flash of arc energy.

ATACAMA DESERT

ABANDONED WASTES, SOUTH AMERICA

Seja walked toward the beam of blue light leading to the top of the spire. When she stepped into it, she could feel herself lifting up. She was on the second level now, a large, even more empty room, with another beam in the middle.

Before she could advance towards the beam, the Vandal she saw from outside teleported in front of her. The Vandal's deep laugh boomed in her ears as it pulled out four shock pistols, one for each hand.

The Vandal shot all four pistols at a rapid speed into her stomach, and she fell backward, clenching the burns. After the Vandal seemed satisfied she was dead, he turned around and walked towards the beam. But Seja stood up, after being revived by her Ghost. She pulled her rocket launcher from her back, and fired it at the Vandal.

The Vandal seemed unfazed however and simply turned around to shoot again. This time Seja jumped above the shots, and jumped again in the air before firing another rocket at the Vandal. The Vandal began to stumble back, and it almost fell over, but before Seja could hit it wither her golden gun, it vanished.

"That was it?" Seja asked.

Before her Ghost, Green, could respond; large numbers of Dregs started to enter the room from the lift on the first floor. She didn't waste her time trying to shoot them, and just ran into the beam and was lifted to the top of the spire.

Seja arrived at the top of the spire in a small room that hosted the lift. She guessed the only door in the room led to the control centre of the spire and deployed Green to open it. As he worked on the door, she made sure no Dregs would follow her up the lift.

The door opened behind her, and she turned to see the face of a Captain looking directly at her, shrapnel launcher in hand. The Captain fired the launcher, and Seja rolled out of the way. He tried to shoot again, but Seja throw a knife into his head, spraying Ether all around the room.

The spire's control centre was full of Dregs and Vandals. Nothing Seja couldn't handle.

She pulled out another knife and launched it into the chest of a Vandal, while firing her hand-cannon at the nearest Dreg, killing it in one shot. The remaining Eliksni took cover behind the consoles in the room.

A Vandal hopped over his cover and fired four shots from his rifle. Seja attempted to dodge, but the arc bolts fired from the rifle tracked her moves, striking her in the side. Seja yelped and grabbed her side, firing back at the Vandal. A second later, a small aura of barely visible light surrounded her; healing her side and making it feel as good as new.

Seja threw a seeker grenade at a spot behind the consoles. Each projectile from the seeker grenade tracked the Dregs, burning into them.

Once Seja made sure the room was clear, she deployed Green at the main console.

"Find me their main base, and if you can't, then just look for more of their outposts," Seja hastily ordered, watching the door

"That's going to take some time, but I'll get it done," Green replied, immediately zapping away at the console buttons, "oh, and there are some Fallen coming to kill you."

Seja made sure her guns were loaded, and a line of Vandals, lead by a Captain entered the room. She immediately popped out of her cover and threw a knife at the Captain, taking its shields down. She then followed by shooting him in the head.

The Vandals opened fire on Seja, missing most of their shots. The stray bolts flew into the consoles and burned them, causing sparks and some small fires to shoot out.

"Don't get hit!" Seja yelled.

"Don't worry! I'm trying not to!" Green responded. Seja chuckled as she watched him dodging stray shots.

She slammed her trigger, firing shots into the heads of two Vandals, and a third in its neck. Before she could finish the last few of Vandals, the big one showed up in the doorway. This time Seja was prepared.

She jumped up and reached deep into the light, harnessing it's power to create a pistol made of flame. She took aim at the head of the Vandal and pulled the trigger. But the gun didn't fire, she felt like she was on fire instead. Then, everything went black.

THE LAST CITY

THE LAST CITY, EARTH

Heft hurled a grenade under the shield of a Cabal Phalanx, blowing it into the air. The dead Phalanx crashed down onto the floor, cracking the already damaged pavement. Heft was in the lower levels of the tower now, close to the ground.

He made it to the ground entrance of the tower and saw the streets littered with dead citizens. He continued and did his best to ignore the dead civilians, but right then, a Cabal Harvester dropped in front of him and dropped off a group of Cabal soldiers.  
He sent as much arc energy to his fists as he possibly could. Once he sent as much energy as he could, he jumped up, put his fists together, and slammed them into the ground. He created a giant wave of arc that disintegrated the Cabal soldiers.

Debris flew up from the ground and hit the Harvester, causing flakes of its red paint to fly off. The Harvester flew away, firing balls of fire at Heft, but missing all of them. Heft continued down the street before anymore Cabal could stop him.

He ran as fast as he could but he began to notice something attaching to the Traveler.

"That is not good," Console said to Heft.

"Right," Heft replied.

Heft began to feel something in his chest, like lava. He fell on his knees and clenched his torso.

"Uh, what is going on?" Heft cried, his voice twisted in pain.

"I… I don't know," Console replied, appearing in front of Heft.

Heft looked up and saw the light Console's eye start to fade; he then fell into a puddle of water on the ground. After a few seconds Heft fell unconscious.

John weaved his ship through the gap on the front of a Cabal warship, dodging his pursuers. He turned the ship back over and looked behind him, seeing three of the five fighters crashing into the ship.

"I guess no one taught the space rhinos to fly," Moira joked.

As the fighters began gaining on him, he stopped his ship dead in its path.

"Ok what are you doing?" Moira asked, her voice full of fear.

"Trust me," John said.

As the fighters got closer they fired. The only thing keeping John's ship still was its emergency thrusters. A few seconds passed and the fighters flew straight past him. Once the fighters passed, he engaged his ships thrusters again, and fired the guns into the backs of the fighters, destroying them all.

"Huh, well," Moira said.

John turned his ship around to fight the warship head on, but he began to feel a burning sensation in his chest. Instinctively, he clutched his chest; accidentally hitting one of the control joysticks, causing the ship to spin out of control.

The ship continued flying as it spun, and it crashed into one of the tall flagpoles on the tower. The ship's engines blew out and it was hurtling towards the ground outside the city wall.

John's life as a Guardian flashed before his eyes as the ship slammed into the ground.


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

THE TANGLED SHORE

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

A Skiff flew towards the rings of debris, leading to the infamous Tangled Shore, a lawless frontier of outlaws and scavengers. But the Tangled Shore did have a law, a single law. Do not mess with the Spider.

The Skiff weaved and navigated through the debris of ships, lost in the Collapse to the Darkness. The Skiff teleported inside a large rock, and arrived in a cave.

But when the Skiff showed up, there were already Eliksni waiting for them. The ship came to a stop, and a tall Vandal jumped out from the back.

"What are you doing here?" the Vandal said.

"I rarely leave my humble home," the large Eliksni said, "what are you bringing for me today Rhetiks?"

"Nothing for you Spider, our cargo is for Azilis," Rhetiks responded to Spider.

"Ah, I thought so. So I used all my energy to get out of my chair, and come all this way, just for you to not bring me anything?" Spider said in a calm voice.

Spider's guards walked up behind him, they had a large number of spikes coming out of the backs of their torsos and helmets. Their helmets had multiple glowing spots on them, looking like eyes. They held arc staffs and pointed them towards Rhetiks.

Rhetiks motioned toward the Skiff, and a large enclosed box materialized in front of him.

"This is the cargo I was bringing to Azilis, you know he will not be happy," Rhetiks said.

"Oh I don't care what he thinks. I own this shore. I only care what I think," Spider responded, motioning for his associates to grab the box.

Rhetiks sneered and went back to the Skiff before it departed.

"So why are we taking their cargo?" Avrok, one of Spider's associates, said.

"I was monitoring their route," Spider said, "I've seen them use it before. A special route they take to bring prisoners to Azilis. He has a whole prison underneath his precious club."

They dragged the box into Spider's palace, and pressed a button on the side, revealing what is inside. There they saw an unconscious Awoken Guardian.

"Avrok, get me Petra Venj," Spider ordered.

THE LAST CITY

THE LAST CITY, EARTH

10 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACK

Heft looked out from the ruined building he was hiding in, and saw the road was clear. He looked back at the Traveler and saw the giant claw attached to hit, emitting some kind of orange shield.

He was headed towards a breach in the city wall, his only way of escape. As he ran out of his cover, he heard the sound of approaching Cabal. _Great._ He sprinted to the side of another crumbling building and waited.

The pounding sounds of the 800 pound Cabal soldiers grew louder as they approached him. They marched past the building, not even turning to look where Heft was hiding. _Stupid rhinos_.

As all the soldiers passed him, he turned to look around the corner, and saw a Goliath tank with a Thresher following above it. He waited for them to pass, and at the first opening he sprinted toward the hole in the wall.

He climbed over the eroding metal and concrete that formed the wall before it was destroyed. He made it to the top of the pile and saw a station just outside, behind a path in the trees.

He ran towards the station, not noticing the two Cabal Legionaries waiting for him there. The giant beasts turned toward him and fired their slug rifles, grazing his shoulder. Heft pulled his rifle from his back, and put a full magazine into the chest of the first Legionary, and he punched the second in the face, causing oil to fly into the grass.

He deployed Console to work on the station.

"So what is this?" Heft asked.

"Vehicle station. We can get a sparrow from here, and take it somewhere safe," Console replied, zapping at a screen.

Heft watched toward the wall, seeing if there were more Cabal coming for him, luckily there weren't. But there were more Cabal ships appearing in the sky.

"Better hurry up before they notice two of their guys are dead," Heft said, not taking his eyes off the breach in the wall.

"Right, almost done," Console replied.

About two seconds later a sparrow appeared next to the station. Heft hopped on it, and boosted it down the path towards the mountains.

"So where are we going?" Heft asked.

"Anywhere but here," Console replied.

THE WILDS

OUTSIDE THE LAST CITY, EARTH

2 DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK

Smoke billowed out of the remains of John's ship as he woke up, still in the cockpit. His vision was hazy and he coughed, undoing the straps that kept him in his seat. He looked around the cockpit and saw fire coming out of most of the consoles.

"Moira, you with me?" John asked, getting out of his chair and limping towards the ships door.

"Yeah I'm here," Moira replied, "but something is wrong."

"What?"

"I can't feel my connection to the light."

"I can barely feel anything."

A small clear aura of light surrounded him for a few seconds, and he could now walk again.

"I can heal you, but I can't resurrect you if you die," Moira said in a solemn voice.

The door wouldn't budge. He punched it has hard as he could, reeling back as his hand cracked.

"Now what did you do that for?" Moira asked before restoring his hand.

"I need to get out of here before the smoke kills me," John said, trying not to choke.

He walked back into the cockpit and saw his weapons strewn across the floor. He salvaged his scout rifle and slug rifle, but his machine gun was beyond repair.

He walked back towards the door carrying the slug rifle, unloaded a full magazine into the sides of the door, and kicked it. The door fell over, into a small pond. He stepped out.

It was day now; instead of dusk, and when he was in the city it was raining. It was now clear.

"How long was I out?" He asked Moira.

She appeared in front of him and said, "no idea. But my guess is probably two days."

He continued out of the pond and stared at his ship.

"Well, I guess it's time to get some exercise then," he said, staring at the burning carcass of his once beautiful Arcadia-class jumpship.

SPIDER'S PALACE

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

"Well, if it isn't Petra Venj, the Queenless Queen's Wrath!" Spider's voice rang out all around his throne room.

Petra entered Spider's room and stared at him.

"So, you called me?" she said, her one eye staring into Spider's.

"Yes, yes. We received some cargo from our friends in the House of Hunters," Spider said, adjusting himself in his seat.

A door to his left opened, and miserable looking Dreg pushed out a large metal container.

"Alright. What is it?" Petra said, wanting to get to the point.

"Well it's uh. It's an Awoken. A Guardian too," Spider responded, watching the Dreg with an unknown emotion in his eyes.

"So, you're telling me that a whole faction of nothing but scavengers and pirates captured a Guardian?" Petra asked tilting her head a bit to the side, confused.

"Well I think she's a Guardian."

The Dreg hit a button and the box revealed the still unconscious Hunter.

"Yep. That is a Guardian," Petra said, before realizing her Ghost was missing. "Spider. Where is her Ghost?"

"Oh, don't blame me!" Spider said, with the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Spider then pulled a Ghost from one of his pockets and began to fidget with it. It was white with three green stripes running up and down.

"Spider," Petra responded to his action with lots of accusation in her voice.

Spider then tossed the Ghost to Petra, and she caught it in her hand.

"I think it's dead, but oh well," Spider said sitting back in his seat.

Petra pulled a tablet from her belt and began typing in coordinates.

"Woah woah woah! You're just going to leave without giving this poor," Spider motioned to the sad looking Dreg, "poor, Dreg anything. He works hard you know."

"Fine," Petra said, pressing different keys on the tablet.

A medium sized box of blue, glowing, cubes of glimmer materialized next to the crate with the Guardian. The Dregs face lit up, and he actually looked happy for once.

"Thank you for your generous donation Petra," Spider said, with an unknown emotion in his voice. It definitely wasn't gratefulness.

"Well pleasure doing business with you as always," Petra said, intently typing on the tablet instead of looking up at Spider.

Soon the crate holding the Awoken Hunter disappeared, and Petra put the tablet back on her belt.

"Well call me if Azilis tries to take anymore Awoken prisoners," Petra said before turning away, "any other species is none of my business."

Spider watched her leave without saying anything, and he gave the Dreg a pat on the back before adjusting himself in his chair.

PETRA'S QUARTERS

VESTIAN OUTPOST, THE REEF

Seja slowly regained consciousness, she was lying on a couch in a room she didn't recognize. She tried to get up off the couch, but her whole body hurt.

"Hey, it's okay," an unknown voice said, "you don't have to get up."

She couldn't tell who was speaking, but it was a female.

The room she was in was dark, except for a soft purple light flowing in from the window above her.

A figure slowly entered the room, presumably the one who was talking to her. She sat down in a chair, opposite of the couch Seja was on, and she could see her face.

The woman's skin was the same colour as hers, her one eye was purple, the other eye covered by an eyepatch bearing the emblem of the Queen's Wrath. Her hair was a sort of mahogany red, cut into short lines on the right side of her head. On the left side of her head it was combed and hanging down, and the rest of her hair tied into a neat bun on the back.

She was also wearing Awoken Corsair armour. The armour was mainly black and magenta.

"Who are you," Seja said with all the energy she could muster.

"My name is Petra Venj," she responded, her voice quiet as well, "acting Regent-Commander of the Reef. Who are you?"

"My name is Seja," Seja said, intently staring at Petra's face.

Petra was looking at her as well, "Seja. Huh. Sounds a bit familiar."

"It does?" Seja asked, confused.

Green appeared beside her, his green eye; which was how he got his name, was staring into Petra's.

"You're an Awoken, do you know anything about Seja's past life?" he asked.

"I don't, but I can find out," Petra responded, smiling.

She pulled her tablet from her belt and began typing.

"So is Seja your real name, or did you choose it?" Petra asked, typing on the tablet.

"I chose it. Thought it was a nice name," Seja responded.

Petra finished typing on her tablet and a picture showed up, with information on the side. The picture looked exactly like Seja, the only difference is that the woman in the picture had straighter hair.

"Sedra Voj, the last member of the Voj family to perish during the Reef Wars," Petra said.

Seja's mind flooded back to when she was first resurrected.

PALLAS GRAVEYARDS

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

_Seja opened her eyes, she was laying on the ground in burned armour, staring into a purple sky. Above her she saw some sort of pointy drone thing with a green eye, and covered in green stripes._

"_Guardian? Eyes up Guardian," it said._

_Seja felt her face, she had no idea where she was or how she got there. She didn't even know who she was. She stood up, looking over to her left. Next to her was a destroyed fighter. She looked to her right, and saw a giant crashed ship. It was a tan colour, and had a giant engine turbine on its left side, and a large point sticking out from the front._

"_Who are you? Where am I? Who am I?" Seja asked, so many things in her mind at once._

"_I'm a Ghost, well I'm your Ghost," he responded, "and you've been dead for about a year."_

"_Dead?" Seja asked in disbelief._

"_Yeah, I came to resurrect you," the drone continued, "we're in a place called the Reef, and well, all I know is that you are the Guardian I was destined for."_

_Seja stood speechless, staring at the ship in the distance._

"_So, I don't know who you are. That is for you to decide."_

_Something rang in her head, a name. She couldn't make it out, but it sounded like _say-draw.

"_Seja. My name is Seja?" she said, still confused._

PETRA'S QUARTERS

VESTIAN OUTPOST, THE REEF

Seja's mind re-entered the real world and she looked back at Petra.

"I remember being resurrected just outside my ship. On Pallas," she said.

Petra continued reading the information next to Sedra Voj's picture.

"It says here that you single-handedly detonated a bomb in a Fallen Ketch during the battle," Petra read, "you managed to escape before the bomb exploded, but your ship was hit by a Skiff. You crashed near the husks of all the other Awoken and Fallen ships that were lost."

"Last member of the Voj family to perish huh?" Seja remarked, smiling.

"You single-handedly took out a Fallen capital ship, and here you are. Alive and well. Well, maybe more alive than well." Petra said in an excited voice,

Seja attempted to sit up on the couch, groaning as her body felt like it was on fire, but she managed to do it.

"So you're a Guardian now?" Petra asked.

"No, not anymore. I left the city to learn about the Eliksni," Seja said, her voice distant.

"Well then," Petra responded, "if you aren't a Guardian anymore, maybe you can come back to your people."

Seja looked up at Petra, "I'd like that."

"Very well, I need to go talk to some people first," Petra replied, "but for now. Welcome back. Cousin."

Petra reached out her hand, and Seja shook it. She smiled when Petra called her cousin.

"Well you stay here and get some rest, I'll be back later," Petra said, standing up and leaving the room.

Seja waved as Petra left. She couldn't wait to be an Awoken again.


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

IRON RANGE

CITY MOUNTAINS, EARTH

4 DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK

Heft climbed over rocks and hardened snow. He made sure to keep his armour sealed, so snow didn't get into his circuits.

The further he got up the mountain, he realized that he couldn't use the sparrow anymore. He discovered that there was a communication facility on a path near the top.

He finally made it to level ground, and began to walk. In the distance he saw a small metal shack, and ran towards it. He got inside, finally out of the snow, and saw dead Guardians.

"Guess I'm not the only one to take this path," Heft said, saluting the Guardians out of respect.

"Well we better continue. Something killed these Guardians, and it was probably Cabal," Console said in a scared voice.

"Relax we're not gonna die out here," Heft replied.

The ground below him shook. He ran towards the door on the other side of the shack, and took cover behind the wall.

"Okay maybe we will die out here," Heft realized.

He slowly cracked the door open and looked outside at the snow. He saw Cabal Legionaries marching up the mountain, toward the shack.

"Great, here we go again," Heft exclaimed.

"We don't have our light, we can't do this," Console responded, "we're going to die!"

"Relax buddy, I'm a Titan you know."

He pulled his assault rifle into his hands, turned the corner, and fired at two of the Legionaries, blowing their helmets off. Black oil stained the white snow. Four more advanced behind the two and fired, missing Heft and blowing pieces of wood off the shack.

Heft whipped out his shotgun and shot into the chest of one, cutting through its armour, and shot the helmet off another.

The next two he punched simultaneously, knocking them back into the snow.

"How far is the communication station?" Heft asked Console.

"About 13 metres down from here, there are bound to be Cabal there though," Console

replied.

As Heft neared the slope, he saw the Console was right. There was two Legionaries guarding a Psion that was trying to access the station.

He slung his shotgun, and pulled his rifle back out, and took aim at the Psion.

"Don't let them take any data," Console said.

Heft squeezed the trigger and a bullet pierced through the head of the Psion, causing steam to erupt from its helmet.

The two Legionaries turned around, but were immediately cut down by Heft.

"Right, so I'm going to access the station, and you are going to cover me right?" Console asked.

"Yep. We may not have our light, but I still need you. No matter how much I don't want to need you," Heft replied.

"And what does that mean?"

"It means I don't like you."

Console appeared next to Heft and pretended to look hurt. Ghosts weren't very good at it. Console flew toward the station and began zapping away at the keys on a terminal.

Heft looked around, and watched for more Cabal. Then he heard a noise. A ship was approaching.

Heft unslung the Two-Tailed Fox and walked towards the noise. A Thresher rose in front of him, and aimed its gun.

"Oh, is that pathetic excuse of a gun all you got?" Heft teased, loading his launcher.

The VTOL looked like it was about to fire, but before it could; Heft fired two rockets into it. The VTOL's structure shattered and the metal on the side burned. Explosions from the inside tore it apart, and it fell; crashing into the rocks below.

"And that's why this gun is awesome!" Heft said.

"The terminal is online," Console said, appearing next to Heft, "maybe we should see what it holds for us."

Console disappeared, and Heft walked back to the terminal. It was playing a repeating message.

"Any Guardians and refugees from the city," a voice in the terminal said, "use any mobile frequency scanning device you can, and input code _two-two-zero-fourteen-twelve. _Follow the signal and you will find refuge."

The message repeated.

"You hear that Console?" Heft asked.

"Frequency has been put in," Console responded, "better destroy this terminal for good measure."

"What if someone else needs to use it?"

"Unlikely, but what is a few dead Guardians compared to an entire settlement of Guardians and citizens alike?"

"Kinda dark; not gonna lie, but you're right, let's go."

The pair then set out down the mountain, following the frequency.

IRON VALLEY

CITY MOUNTAINS, EARTH

6 DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK

John found a clearing from the trees, next to the base of a mountain. He had run into multiple hazards, mostly in the form of the Cabal.

He continued through the clearing and ended up in between two mountains. He climbed over a pile of rocks and saw crates.

"I think someone made it out here," John exclaimed, excited to finally not be alone.

"Why don't we go find out?" Moira said.

He saw tents behind the crates, and walked towards them; hoping to find someone.

He lifted the entrance of the tent and saw a dead Guardian inside. It was a fellow Warlock, and its throat was torn out.

"Uh, I think we need to leave," John hastily said, while turning around.

"Wait! Don't move!" Moira yelled.

He heard howling in the distance. The howling continued and grew closer; definitely not wolves.

He readied his scout rifle and looked around in the trees, the howling was coming from every direction.

Suddenly, dozens giant red hound-like creatures burst out of the trees, sprinting toward him. He couldn't count how many there were. They were red, scaly, and had white spikes coming off their backs. They also had helmets.

He squeezed the trigger of his rifle, shooting one in the head. It's head burned up, and oil came out of its helmet. He popped off even more shots, hitting a four of them in their heads.

Another came behind him and knocked him over. It tried to get to his neck, but he wouldn't let it. Then it suddenly disintegrated into void energy. He heard the sounds of a fusion rifle discharging.

He got back up, and saw his saviour; another fellow Warlock. The other Warlock unslung their pulse rifle and fired into the surging crowd of beasts.

He tried to yell to the Warlock, but the sound of shooting, and approaching hounds, was drowning out all other sound.

A red, blocky, ship flew overhead, and the two materialized into the ship. Now all he could hear was his heavy breathing. He took off his helmet and collapsed on the floor of the ship.

The Warlock who had saved him entered the hold he was in. He could see her face now. She had purple hair, red lips, and green eyes.

"Hey! Who are you?" he asked.

"Doesn't matter who I am, who are you?" she said, reaching out a hand to pick him up.

"My name is John."

"John. Pretty generic."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Ahh, nothing."

John grabbed her hand and stood up.

"Where are we heading?" he asked.

"A place called the farm. It's where all the refugees and Guardians are heading," she replied.

"Right. I was getting tired of traveling alone."


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

THRONE ROOM

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

"Welcome to the throne room," Petra said, leading Seja along a catwalk.

They were being escorted by Awoken Corsairs to the empty throne of the Reef.

"Well. Considering the Queen is dead, and the Prince is missing, I am acting commander of the Reef," Petra said to Seja, "so, it is my job to welcome you back into the realm of the Awoken."

The two stepped up to the throne, and Petra turned to Seja.

"You are here to rejoin the Awoken society yes?" she said.

"Yes," Seja nodded.

"Then you will be stripped of your status as a former Guardian, and you will now be a full Awoken. You can use your abilities as you wish, but remember. Your people come first."

Seja nodded and continued to listen.

"You have exceptional talent in fighting, and I would not want that talent to go to waste. I'm sure you would not want to give up fighting either, so you are to become a Corsair, and eventually a part of the Queen's Wrath. So, what do you say cousin?"

"I say I can't wait," Seja said, keeping her excitement contained.

Petra smiled.

"Then, as Regent-Commander I welcome you back to your people," Petra said.

"I am honoured," Seja responded.

THE FARM

THE FARM, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

1 WEEK AFTER THE ATTACK

John exited his new friend's ship in a patch of grass. There was a building next to him that looked like some sort of weather station, to his right farther down was a barn. Across from the barn was a watermill, and beyond that was a field with football nets set up.

In the distance John could see a huge shard; it had dark blue smoke flowing out of it, there was also periodic flashes of blue lightning.

"Humble place isn't it?" the Warlock asked.

"Yeah, beautiful place," John responded, "hey, what is that in the distance?"

John pointed at the giant shard.

"That is the shard of the Traveler," she responded, "it's the reason most of Europe is a dead zone."

Between the watermill and weather station was a small plaza, where there was a cryptarch, storage vaults, and an Eververse tent.

"Follow me, I can take you to Hawthorne," she said.

"Who is Hawthorne?" John asked.

"The leader of these people."

The Warlock walked to the barn and John followed. Inside the barn was a ship that looked like it was being stripped for parts. He saw Lord Shaxx in a small, open room with his frame, Arcite 99-40.

Next to the small room was a staircase, leading to the second floor of the barn. The two ran up and saw a woman in a poncho, with a bird on her shoulder.

"John, this is Hawthorne," the Warlock said to John.

Hawthorne turned around, and looked at them, giving a small smile. She held her hand out and John shook it.

"Welcome to the farm John," she said, "I'm sure you'll fit in just fine with all the other lightless Guardians."

"Are these the only survivors from the city?" John asked.

"We are still getting more, and every now and again we head out ourselves to see if we can find anyone."

"How do people find this place?"

"We leave messages and scanning devices around in the wilds. They lead the people that find them here."

John looked into the distance at the Traveler shard.

"How do you get supplies?" John asked Hawthorne.

"We have a guy in the EDZ to scout out locations of resources," Hawthorne responded, "but most of the resources in the EDZ get looted by Fallen before we can find them."

"Maybe we could help?"

"Maybe, but I can't have Guardians running around getting killed. And I'm not doubting your abilities, it's just that I don't want to risk lives."

"Isn't having a scout out there risking a life?"

"Knowing who he is, I'm not really risking anything."

John didn't continue to argue, and he turned to the Warlock.

"So, if that shard is corrupting this whole area," John started, "and the Red Legion hasn't contained it, then that means it has light left right?"

"Right," she replied, "where is this going?"

"Where this is going is that; if the Traveler itself was captured by the Cabal, but not this shard; does that mean we can use our powers near the shard?"

"Probably not. The Traveler itself is dead, and the shard? Even more dead."

"Even more dead?"

"I know what I said."

A third voice was heard behind the two, "I don't think it's a very crazy idea."

John turned and saw Heft.

"Heft!" he exclaimed.

Heft and John walked toward each other, and bumped their fists. They have been through a lot together, he was glad Heft was still alive.

"Good to see you man," John said, his voice full of joy.

"Likewise," Heft responded. He motioned towards the female Warlock, "who is this?"

"Well uh…" John began, "well, she hasn't told me her name."

"Because you don't need to know," is all she said.

Hawthorne chimed in, "you would coordinate better if you did tell them your name."

"Alright fine. My name is Rian."

"See it wasn't that hard," John said to Rian, "why were you hiding it?"

"My name has some troubled history. History that doesn't work well with the light."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I think you should find out on your own."

Heft looked at John, his face looked like it said _what the hell is her problem?_ John looked back mouthing the words 'I don't know'.

"Okay, so back on the whole getting our light back thing," Heft said, wanting to get to the point.

"My ship crashed outside the city, but Rian has one. We can get to that shard in no time," John replied.

"Don't go getting yourselves killed now," Hawthorne warned.

"Don't worry, we won't."

Rian headed down the stairs, John and Heft followed. They ran out to the football field, which was currently empty, and opened a gate on the far side. They continued along a set path until they saw Rians interestingly designed jumpship.

"Well, let's go get our light back."

CORSAIR BARRACKS

VESTIAN OUTPOST, THE REEF

Seja and Petra walked into a large, circular room, just off the main area of the Vestian outpost. It had five doors on each side, and banners hanging from the ceiling. The banners, and the main circle, were purple with the white and gold crown that was the Queen's Wrath emblem.

"Well, this is the Corsair and Queen's Wrath HQ," Petra said as they entered, "On the far left there is the armoury, where we have all our weapons and armour. Next to it on the right, leads to the living quarters. The next door, in the middle, is the command centre for the Queen's Wrath, the fourth door leads to the hangar, and the fifth is my quarters."

"Well, this is a large place then," Seja responded.

"It's mostly built out of old Fallen ships, but certain areas needed extending, so we build them ourselves. Now follow me to your quarters."

Petra walked toward the second door, and stepped through. Seja followed. After they navigated through a number of hallways they came up to a dark room, and stepped inside. Petra put her hand on a terminal next to the door and the lights turned on.

There was a bed in the right corner of the room, and in the middle of the room was a circular table with four chairs. On the left wall was a blue screen, presumably used as some sort of TV. There were multiple counters with drawers, and a cooler in the left corner.  
"Everything you need to live is in here. Pretty self-explanatory," Petra said, "now for the terminals. Place your hand on the screen to turn the lights on and off. Press the button on the left to lock your door, and the button on the right to call any security."

"Right," Seja nodded.

"And that is all there is to it. I suggest you get some rest, and tomorrow we can get you properly acquainted with the Reef."

Petra turned around and left Seja alone in her room.

Seja turned the lights in the room off as Petra left and sat in her bed. Too much has happened in the past week. As long as Guardians weren't able to die they tended to be reckless. Getting use to mortality wouldn't be easy.

As Seja laid back in the bed she began to drift off to sleep, for the first time in what seemed to be ages. She was suddenly woken up by a ringing emitted from her room's terminal.

"Green can you go answer it?" Seja lazily said, not wanting to get out of her bed.

"Sure," Green complied, hovering over to the terminal and zapping a button.

"Seja?" Petra's voice rang out of a speaker.

"No it's Green. She's resting right now."

"I figured. Well, resting is important but I have something else important for her."

"What is it?"

"Well, there is a Guardian here, I think a Warlock. Says he knows Seja and wants to talk to her."


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

SHARD OF THE TRAVELER

EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE, EARTH

Rian's ship flew over the forest and dropped the three Guardians off, some distance from the shard itself. But the area around them was weird, and distorted. There was a dark blue fog covering the forest. Rocks were floating in the air, and it generally felt like there was less gravity.

"Dead zone huh?" Heft whispered, taking in the scene.

"Alright, we need to get underneath the shard first," Rian said, "then we need to get as close as we can to it physically."

"Why didn't we land closer?" John asked.

"So the Fallen don't get us."

"Right."

They continued down the road. There was no enemies waiting for them, which was good. But also strange. Rian followed the footsteps of a Hunter named Seja, and investigated the House of Dusk. Apparently they have an entire section dedicated to guarding the shard.

As they followed the road, they noticed a gap leading to a tunnel where a bridge was supposed to be. The tunnel entrance was too far for them to make it without their powers.

"So what do we do now?" John asked.

"Find a different route," Rian said.

Rian then jumped down the gap in the road, her boots smacked into mud. She beckoned the other two down, and they followed.

"Which way?" Rian asked as she pulled out her Ghost.

"Right," her Ghost said.

Her Ghost didn't have any fancy shell, it was just a generic white with a blue eye. John's was white with four white spikes coming out of her back; she also had a purple eye. Heft's Ghost had a blue eye, and his top half was red; with the other half being black.

The trio of Guardians turned to the right and continued into the undergrowth. Ahead of them was a crack in the rocks, which they went through to find themselves in a dark cave. They continued in the cave, stepping in a large puddle.

Moira appeared and began to provide light, but when Moira activated her light; they began to hear swishing noises, and saw some flashes of blue ahead of them.

"Fallen ahead," John whispered, and they all readied their weapons.

From the darkness in front of them, three Eliksni appeared. They looked different. They had blades on their lower arms and were wearing a hood. Their helmets had multiple glowing circles on each side, making it look like they had more than four eyes.

The things were wielding shock blades, and they leaped to attack. John dodged one and kicked it onto the ground. Another sliced Heft in his shoulder armour, and Rian killed the third one before it had the chance to attack her.

John fired a bullet into the Eliksni on the ground, killing it instantly. Heft punched his assailant; his hand flying through it's skull, causing ether to spray into the water.

Rian looked at the two, John couldn't read her expression through her helmet, but he guessed she thought they were stupid.

"Beware of more," Rian said softly.

They continued through the cave, stepping through the water. As they continued, John realized that the cave was a little too empty. The Eliksni were here, and they were dedicated to protecting the Traveler's shard. Why weren't they doing more to stop them?

They climbed over a set of rocks, and saw an entrance to a building from the inside of the cave. They sprinted into the building, only to be met by a squad of four Dregs and a Captain. Rian and John fired bursts at the Dregs, killing them right away, and Heft ran up to punch the Captain.

The Captain fell onto its back, and Heft went in for the killing blow, striking it in its neck.

Something was off about the Dregs. They had docking caps on their lower arms, unlike any other Dreg that was a part of the House of Dusk.

No-one mentioned anything about the Eliksni and they continued on.

The building they were in was made of old rusted metal, and the floor was made of concrete. On the far end of the room they were in was a staircase, leading up to the next floor. The three continued, climbing the stairs to find the second floor's wall blown open.

They jumped down, back into the forest. This time it was extremely dark, and they looked up to see they were directly underneath the shard.

"No turning back now," Heft muttered.

"Wasn't planning on it," John said back.

The trio of Guardians hid in the undergrowth as more Eliksni showed up. They weren't looking for the Guardians however; they were dragging crates and loading them onto a Skiff. Well, Dregs were dragging the crates. Captains were making sure the Dregs did their job instead of helping.

One Dreg faltered and dropped its crate. A Captain noticed and slapped it across the face with its lower hand.

"I thought Dusk was nice to their Dregs" John said in a whisper.

"I thought so too," Rian responded, "look at their arms too, they have caps on them. Dusk Dregs never have caps on them."

"Just this sect. treats their Dregs poorly," Rian's Ghost appeared next to her, "I don't think the rest of the House even knows what these guys are up to. Maybe they aren't even a sect. at all."

"We need to save them," Rian whispered.

"No we don't," John whispered back.

"But look at them, they're in terrible conditions."

"A Fallen is a Fallen, there is nothing good about them."

Rian slapped John on the shoulder, but not in a playful way. She was genuinely angry. The sound of the slap rang out in the quiet forest, and the Captains looked toward where they were hiding.

"Great," Heft said, standing up and readying his rifle.

Rian jumped up and fired her fusion rifle at one of the Captains, taking his shields out. John followed with a shot to his head with his slug rifle. Heft fired a full magazine into the chest of another Captain, shredding the armour and killing him.

A third Captain jumped out of the undergrowth and grabbed Rian by the head, attempting to snap her neck. John wasn't about to let her die, and rapidly fired his slug rifle into the Captain's face, causing it to explode. Rian fell over at the same time as the Captain.

John extended his hand, and Rian grabbed it.

"Thanks," she said.

They looked around after the brief skirmish to see all the Dregs had gone. All but one. The last remaining Dreg jumped out of the shadows and attached itself to Heft's back.

Heft reached behind him and grabbed the Dreg, launching it onto the ground in front of him. He pulled out his shotgun and pointed at its face, preparing the pull the trigger just when Rian stopped him.

She slapped the shotgun out of Heft's hands and pushed him aside. She then looked at John like she was just about to shoot him, but she didn't. She turned to see the Dreg stand up.

It stood up, but crouched right away, hissing at them. It held its hands out in a way that made it look like it was just about to attack again.

Rian set her rifle on the ground, and held up her hands. A sign that she wasn't going to hurt it. The Dreg seemed to relax a little, but it was still wary. Rian held out her Ghost.

Her Ghost spread apart, turning into a blue ball.

"What is your name?" Rian said.

The Ghost began producing noises, speech in a different language. Presumably the Eliksni language.

Then the Dreg began speaking. It said 'Gariks'.

"It's okay Gariks," Rian continued, "you're safe now."

Rian's Ghost repeated the words in Eliksni. The Dreg then spoke.

"You're not going to kill me?" Rian's Ghost repeated the Dreg's words in english.

"No," is all Rian responded with.

Gariks didn't say anything more, and slowly approached Rian.

"What is your name?" Gariks repeated.

"Rian," Rian replied.

Rian turned to John and Heft; who were watching quietly.

"We need to go now," Rian said to the two.

"But what about our-" John began.

"Forget about our light, we need to go!" Rian interrupted him.

Another Skiff appeared over the four. Before the Skiff could drop any reinforcements, the four of them materialized into Rian's ship.  
"You seriously care about some ugly, four armed alien more than the light?" John said to Rian as they entered the cockpit.

"We don't need our powers to survive John," she angrily retorted, "and he is a living being!"

Rian sat down in the pilot's chair.

John just rolled his eyes and didn't bother to continue arguing.

"Anyways, we can't just return to the farm with a Fallen on our ship," Rian said, ignoring John, "plus I can't understand a thing he says. I need a translator, and I know where to get one."

"And where would that be?" John asked.

"The Reef."

John didn't know much about the Reef other than it's where the Awoken came from. Seja's home. He hadn't forgotten Seja, but he never brought her up. He missed their fireteam leader, and wanted to be able to see her again before he died. But of course there is also the possibility he would survive without his light.

"Why do we need to go there?" John asked, shoving his thoughts deep in his mind.

"Because I know someone there who can give Gariks a translator," she said.

Almost as if he heard his name, Gariks entered the cockpit; with Heft close behind him. He already had his docking caps removed. Gariks went up behind the chair and tapped Rian's shoulder. When she looked back at Gariks; he pointed at a pouch on Rian's thigh.

Rian deployed her Ghost, and she activated her translator mode.

"The Eliksni will follow us. You must destroy them," she translated.

"I'm not a very good fighter pilot. I'm no good at shooting," Rian said.

"But I am," John said with confidence.

Rian stood up out of the chair, and John took the seat; gripping the joysticks.

The Skiffs began to fire their shock cannons at the ship. John flipped the ship over, dodging the rounds, and stopped the ship completely.

"What are you doing?" Rian asked, her voice showing the slightest hint of fear.

"Trust me," he said.

The Skiffs didn't stop and continued moving. As they passed, John kicked the ship back into gear and fired the guns. He struck the first Skiff in its engines, causing it to crash into the trees below. He fired a rocket from the ship, and it pierced the second Skiff, causing it to explode into multiple pieces.

There was one left. The last Skiff stopped moving, and John continued. He realized the last Skiff stopped, and slowed down. The two ships were right next to each other, moving at the same speed. The Skiff fired a shock mine out of its side. The mine hit the armour plating of Rian's ship, and bounced. As it landed again, it exploded; causing a small amount of armour to burn away.

John stopped the ship completely again, wanting to avoid another mine. He tilted it towards the Skiff and fired, shredding the entire thing apart.

"Company neutralized," John said, getting out of the seat to allow Rian to sit back down.

"Thanks," she said, taking the seat.

Rian plotted a course for the Reef.

VESTIAN OUTPOST

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

Heft was always told that the Reef had very tight security, but when they were flying through the debris of wrecked ships they didn't run into anything.

The ship approached a Ketch that drifted in space, and flew into a small hangar. However the hangar was much smaller from further away. On the inside it was huge, multiple Awoken fighters were docked on the side, and there were multiple platforms at the far end.

The ship stopped at the far end of the hangar, above the metal platforms, and the three Guardians materialized underneath the ship.

"Hot Awoken chick, twelve-o'clock," Heft jokingly whispered to Heft as they saw three Awoken approaching them.

John hit him in the arm, clearly not amused.

"Welcome to the Vestian outpost Guardians," the woman leading the other two said, "my name is Petra Venj. What brings you here?"

"We're here to speak to Variks," Rian said, stepping forward.

"What do you need from him?" Petra asked.

"An Eliksni translator."

Petra nodded, and typed something into a tablet.

"Variks?" John whispered to Rian.

"He's another Fallen," she replied.

On the far end of the outpost was a small hut, made out of the same materials Eliksni use in their ships and buildings. There was no door, but there was a large rag covering the entrance so Heft couldn't see inside.

But the rag moved, and an Eliksni stepped out. He looked like a Vandal. He was carrying a staff in one of his arms, and his two upper arms were prosthetic; made from some bronze coloured metal.

As the Eliksni stepped out, Rian took off. She ran towards the alien, and slowed down about two metres away from him. She then motioned for John and Heft to come over.

"This is Variks, House of Judgement's kell," she said as the two arrived.

"Very good to meet you, yes?" Variks said.

"I'm John," John replied.

"Heft," the Titan said quietly.

Variks had a kind of high pitched voice, and it was very raspy. His voice was clearly synthetic.

"Tell me, what brings you Guardians here?" Variks asked, not speaking to any particular person.

"I came here because I need a translator for an Eliksni," Rian said.

Heft couldn't really read Variks' expression because only his eyes were exposed with his helmet on. And you couldn't tell much from an Eliksni's eyes. But from the tone of his voice, Heft guessed he was glad to meet new people, and to be able to help.

"Yes, yes, an Eliksni translator," he said, turning towards his hut, "I have many to give."

He went into the hut, and came out a minute later carrying a small, gray, rectangular device. On the ends of the device, it looked like it attached to helmets.

"Tell me, who is this Eliksni?" Variks asked, handing the translator to Rian.

"His name is Gariks, we found him on Earth," Rian responded.

"Member of House Dusk?"

"Yes."

"Ah yes, House Dusk. Achieving what House Judgement never achieved. Peace between the houses. Spend lots of time with House Dusk, since capture of city yes?"

Everyone went silent.

"How did you know the city was captured?" Rian asked, voicing everyones thoughts.

"Word from Petra," Variks pointed towards Petra; she was standing by some screens where Awoken Corsairs were working, "ask her, receive answer yes?"

John and Heft said bye to Variks and began walking to Petra. Rian stood with Variks and continued talking.

Petra was playing with her knife, continuously flipping it and catching it, when she saw two of the Guardian arrivals approaching her. She sheathed her knife and stepped forward as the Guardians walked up the short staircase to her post.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

"Variks over there told us he knew the city was attacked," the male Warlock said.

"Ah, right. A Guardian showed up here about a week or two ago, told me about the whole attack. She told me she wasn't there though."

The Warlock seemed to be thinking hard for a while, then finally responded.

"Wasn't there, and a she. _And_ and Awoken. Hmmm. Sounds like someone I know," he said.

"Well tell me her name, and let's see if you do know her."

"Seja."

Petra nodded.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"In her quarters, most likely resting. I can call her if you'd like, but if she doesn't pick up she's asleep," Petra responded, walking up to one of the screens next to her and typing a number in.

The screen began to emanate a beeping noise. It took a few seconds, but someone answered.

"Seja?" Petra asked.

"No, it's Green. She's resting right now." her Ghost responded.

She looked over at the Warlock, and his face lit up with joy.

"Well, there is a Guardian here, I think a Warlock. Says he knows Seja and wants to talk to her," she said back to Green.

"John?" he asked.

She looked over at the Warlock and he nodded.

"Yes, it's John."

"Well, maybe he can come by later or... hold on." Green's voice trailed off.

Green was saying something that was too quiet for anyone to hear, but he came back a minute later.

"Great, you can come by now."


	8. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

CORSAIR BARRACKS

VESTIAN OUTPOST, THE REEF

Seja overheard Petra's words as Green spoke to her. _My fireteam is here? At last! _She was excited, but then she remembered that she was now part of the Awoken people. She couldn't just leave John hanging, she had to tell him everything.

"Maybe he can come by later or-" Green was saying to Petra.

"Green!" Seja whispered.

"Hold on," Green said to Petra before floating over to Seja.

Seja sat up in the bed and looked at Green, clearly not wanting to rest at this moment.

"John is here?" she asked.

"Yep, Heft too," he responded.

"I know I should be resting and all, but I have to talk to John. Tell him everything that has happened since he left to defend the city."

"Hmm. Right."

Green quickly floated back over to the terminal.

"Great, you can come by now," he said.

A few minutes after the terminal call Seja's door opened. John stood there in the doorway with two Corsairs standing next to his sides.

"John!" Seja shouted with joy.

"Seja!" John shouted back, equally as joyful.

The two ran up to each other and hugged. The stood with their arms around each other for about five seconds before Seja stepped away.

"Oh there is so much you need to know," she said.

"Come on," he said, "tell me."

Seja walked back to her bed and sat down. She explained how she arrived on the Reef and became a Corsair. She told him that her duty was now to the Awoken, and that she couldn't return to the city. She had told him everything that had happened since they departed at the Atacama desert.

"So, you're not going to help us retake the city?" John asked, not as excited as before.

"No," she said, "the Awoken come first now. I'm sorry."

"I see."

John stood up from her bed.

"So you can't come back to the fireteam either?" he asked, disappointment filling his voice.

"No."

"Hmm. I understand. I'm a human and my duty is to Earth as you are an Awoken and your duty is to the Reef. We can still be friends though right?"

"Yes. I'll be able to talk to you whenever I'm free. But because these recent 'developments' we're probably going to be away from each other for even longer"

"I know. All I care about is at least being able to stay in touch."

Seja stood back up and hugged him again before he left. Once he was gone she locked her door, and went back to her bed for some much needed rest.


	9. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

RIAN'S SHIP

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

"So what happened?" Rian asked John as they flew away from the Vestian outpost.

"She's a Corsair now. And she won't be joining us again," John replied sadly.

"Don't feel down. She's an Awoken, and can do whatever she wants. She would be useful in retaking the city, but it's not our call what she does," Rian said, looking away from John.

Heft and Gariks were in the back room, talking about who knows what, and John was hanging with Rian, though he barely said a word.

"Well we're gonna have to go back to Hawthorne and explain where we've been."

"That'll be fun."

"Right."

"So are all of you guys cool or just you and Variks?" Heft asked Gariks.

"What do you mean?" Gariks responded, his voice lower pitched but as raspy as Variks'.

"Like, you're nice to us, Variks was nice to us, why aren't all Fallen nice to us?"

"Eliksni. And you three lightbearers saved me from a life of pain and torment. I do not know of Variks' wills, but he is probably good to lightbearers out of acceptance that the Great Machine chose you over us."

"Great machine as in the Traveler?"

"Whatever you lightbearers call it."

Heft was sitting on one side of the room while Gariks sat on the other side. Heft was fascinated by the Eliksni. He heard some things from Seja when he was paying attention, but he never actually spoke to a real Eliksni. Or had one speak to him, other than Variks.

"So your people were Guardians?" Heft asked.

"Not Guardians, we were mortal and did not have little drones to accompany us," Gariks responded, "but we were warriors of the light. Even built religion out of the Great Machine as you have."

Heft nodded like he understood anything Gariks just said to him.

THE FARM

THE FARM, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

"Arriving at Earth in one minute," Rian said over her ship's intercom.

John shoved his emotions deep in his mind so they wouldn't distract him from anything.

He looked up and saw Heft step into the cockpit.

"Well me and Gariks just had a very interesting discussion, what's new?" he said, sitting down in a chair behind Rian's.

Gariks followed and sat next to Heft.

"So, Gariks, we're heading to our settlement called the farm," Rian turned around, "so we're going to have to explain who you are, but we might not be able to let you live with us."

Gariks looked down at the floor.

"But if you can't stay with us, then we won't live on the farm," Rian said.

Gariks looked back up. John couldn't tell his expression because his mouth was covered by the translator, but he guessed he was happy.

"What do you mean we won't live on the farm?" Heft asked.

"We can live out in the wilds, on our ship, and occasionally show up there for supplies," Rian responded.

"Actually that doesn't that bad," Heft said back.

"We're not Hunters, the wild isn't our home," is all John said.

"It doesn't matter, we can learn to survive," Rian replied.

Rian's ship arrived over the farm, and the three Guardians exited, leaving Gariks back in the cockpit. They arrived just at the crack of dawn. They jogged to the barn where Hawthorne normally is, but she wasn't there.

"Hey, where's Hawthorne?" Rian yelled down to Shaxx's room.

"She's out looking for supplies and survivors," Shaxx yelled back.

"Huh, looks like we'll have to tell her later," Rian turned to John.

"Right then," he said, "while she's gone maybe we can look for a spot to set the ship down?"

"I thought you didn't want to live in the wilds."

"Well, now that I thought about it I decided it isn't such a bad idea."

Rian smiled and they walked back down the steps, heading back to their ship.

Gariks paced around the cockpit waiting for the Guardians to return when he realized something. _No ether here! _Gariks sat down in the pilot's seat and looked around the console. He couldn't read any of it, and Skiffs were built differently than human ships.

He got up and paced again, this time faster. _Where to get ether? Cannot live without it! _He began to feel drowsy, and almost fell over when he heard the swoosh of Guardians materializing in the ship.

He ran towards the transmat door and opened it.

"Hey Gariks," the one named Rian said, sounding a bit concerned, "what's wrong?"

"Talk to you in private," he said, looking at the other two.

"Well John, you better fly the ship for me then," the female said, motioning for everyone to clear out.

Then Gariks entered the room and sat down on the floor.

"Do not feel well, you know Eliksni yes?" he said, staring up at Rian.

"You don't have any ether," she said, realizing that he needed it to survive.

"Correct, cannot live without it. Need ether as soon as possible, or I will… die."

Rian didn't respond, but she started to think. She thought about it for a while and then finally spoke.

"Servitors give you ether correct?" she said.

"Correct."

"What kind of power do they run on?"

"Do not know exactly, but Dusk captains were finding a way to use motes of light from Great Machine."

"So that's what your sect. did?"

"Correct. Dregs forced to haul crates of light to feed out Servitors."

"I see."

"Feed servitors motes of light yes? They convert light to ether. Cannot wield light, why not turn it to something else?"

Rian nodded, and thought again. Then she turned and left the room, walking straight to John. She was saying something that Gariks couldn't hear, then the ship turned back towards the farm.

As the ship arrived over the farm once more, Heft and John left. Rian beckoned Gariks to the cockpit.

"I told John and Heft to get supplies from the farm," Rian said, "do you know where we can find a servitor?"

CORSAIR BARRACKS

VESTIAN OUTPOST, THE REEF

Seja awoke to her terminal ringing. She had no sense of time, and didn't know how long she slept. She quickly got out of her bed, unlocked the door, and sprinted out. She entered the main circular room of the barracks and saw two lines of Corsairs standing in front of Petra Venj. The second line had a spot open that Seja quickly took.

"Good, now that we're all here I can begin briefing," Petra began, "a Crow, one of Uldren's scouts, has discovered something on Mars. He believes it to be Uldren's ship, and has brought back some pretty compelling proof of it. The Awoken ship that was discovered is currently crashed in the Ma'adim Subterrane, and the area outside it is occupied by Cabal

"Two teams, comprised of you, will drop at two different points, clear out as much Cabal as you can, and meet at the entrance of the Subterrane. Any questions?

No one spoke.

"Good, head to the hangar," Petra said, letting everyone go. Before Seja left Petra caught up to her, "I know that I'm throwing you into combat pretty quickly, but I know you can handle this. Go, bring Uldren back to the Reef safely."

"I won't let you down," Seja responded.

Petra nodded and she let Seja leave for the hangar.

GLACIAL DRIFT

HELLAS BASIN, MARS

The transport ships the Awoken used were heavily modified Eliksni Skiffs. So modified they barely resembled their original design. Two Skiffs flew over the red sand, and white ice.

"Transport Alpha approaching drop location," the first Skiff said.

The ship veered off it's course and headed to the ground.

"Transport Beta approaching drop location," a voice rang out over the passenger hold.

Seja felt the ship shift under her feet. Each Skiff held a squad of four. Three soldiers and one commander. The soldiers wore regular Corsair armour while the commanders wore silver Corsair armour. The commander's helmets had black visors, and they wore blue cloaks.

_Just like Hunter armour. _Seja thought, wanting to have a cloak on her back again.

The Skiff came to a full stop, and the interior lights turned red.

"Prepare for drop," the pilot said.

The floor underneath Seja's feet disappeared, and she fell to the ground. She landed on her feet, as did the rest of the squad. They heard gunshots across from the drift, and saw enemies on the bridge in the middle. Cabal.

In front of them, large gray pods smashed into the ground, throwing red sand up everywhere. The pods disintegrated and Cabal Legionaries were standing there, with their guns up.

Seja and the Corsairs raised their rifles, and tore through the enemies armour before they had a chance to return fire. The squad ran up a dune of sand and two more pods smashed into the ground ahead of them.

The Cabal that exited had the chance to fire first, and they did. The Corsairs dodged the slugs firing at them, except for one. One of the Corsairs was hit in the shoulder, and the shot burned right through.

Seja raised her rifle, and squeezed the trigger while aiming at the head of one of the Legionaries. Oil sprayed across the sand, and two of the other Cabal noticed Seja.

She stepped to the side, avoiding about three shots, and took another in the stomach. She fell back into the sand. She slid down the dune, and landed on her back. Good. She felt the pain of the wound go away, and she stood back up.

Green always had her back. Seja hopped over the dune and saw all but one Legionary dead. She had the pleasure of blowing his face off. The shooting began to die down.

"Soldiers," Petra's voice rang out over communications, "the Cabal may have found Uldren. Head up the ridge to the east and enter the cave. Get him out of there, and don't let him die. As for the commanders, I will be monitoring your feeds. Good luck."

The two squads advanced to the beginning of the ridge. Only one member was missing, the one who got hit in the shoulder. These Cabal must be using really powerful weapons; Seja was glad she had Green with her to keep her alive.

"Status?" the commander of the first squad asked the commander of Seja's.

"One casualty, having her extract," the commander of Seja's squad replied.

"Not bad. But she'll make it."

The seven Awoken soldiers heard a deep roar in the distance, and three Cabal Legionaries flew over the rocks above the entrance to Ma'adim Subterrane. They could easily deal with Legionaries.

Every soldier opened fire at the same time, and tore the giant 800-pound aliens apart. But the Legionaries weren't all of it. A giant Cabal Colossus flew over the rocks, and landed behind the dead Legionaries.

"Scatter!" the leader of alpha squad yelled.

Every soldier burst in different directions as the Colossus fired. One Awoken got caught by the fire, the slugs tearing her in half.

"Well, crap," Seja said under her breath.

She took cover behind one of the many orange rocks in the drift. The Colossus slowly walked forward, scanning the area for the Awoken. It then charged its heavy slug thrower and fired. The rock that Seja was hiding behind began to fly apart.

About a minute or two more and her life would be over. She tapped her communications device.

"Hey uh, a little help?" she said into it, not knowing who it was contacting.

"On my way," a voice said back. The pilot.

As Seja deactivated her comms, a flash of blue appeared in the sky. A second later one of the Skiffs appeared with a loud boom. The Colossus stopped firing and looked up at the Skiff.

Seja turned the corner of what was left of her rock, and saw it was crumbling into hundreds of pieces.

The Skiff deployed its shock cannons and fired at the Colossus, burning its armour. All the Awoken soldier's that were taking cover stood up, and fired at the Colossus's face, trying to get a shot through one of its eye slits.

No shot could penetrate its helmet however, not even the Skiffs. The Skiff began to circle above the Colossus and fire its weapons. The only thing it was able to do was stun the beast. The soldier's had to get back into cover. Suddenly Seja had an idea. Cabal were huge, but they could be knocked over.

"Cousin, I have a plan," she said to the Corsair next to her.

"What is it?" the Corsair asked.

"Give me your grenades, not even the heaviest of aliens can withstand the blow I'm going to send at that thing."

The Corsair hastily grabbed her grenades from her belt and handed them to Seja. Seja took them and nodded to the Corsair.

"Good luck cousin," the Corsair said.

Seja hopped over the rock and sprinted over to the Colossus. It was too focused on trying to destroy the Skiff. She dropped her grenades, and the grenades the Corsair gave to her under its feet, and circled around it.

Seja hid in the entrance to the cave and watched all four grenades explode at once. The Cabal stumbled to the side and dropped its giant chaingun. It tried to balance itself but it couldn't, and fell off the side of the ridge.

The rest of the soldiers got out from their covers, and ran toward Seja, shouting in triumph.

"Excellent work Seja," her squad's commander said, "I'm glad you decided to join us."

Seja smiled behind her helmet, but didn't respond. Both squads gathered outside the entrance to the cave.

"We have reached the entrance to the Ma'adim Subterrane," said the commander of Alpha squad, "two casualties, one death."

"We have time to mourn for her later, get inside and find Uldren," Petra responded.

Alpha squad went in first. Bravo squad, the one Seja was in, followed; watching outside to make sure all the Cabal were dead.

Inside the cave was a small spiral path, leading into a larger cave. The path was narrow, and if you fell you would be trapped in a deep pool of water. All the soldiers went in single file, Seja was at the back.

They all entered the large cave, and saw a ship crashed into the wall, buried deep in the rocks. It was an Awoken fighter all right.

"Ira, search the ship, Seja watch the entrance, everyone else search the entire cave for Uldren," the leader of her squad said.

Seja did as she was told, kneeling with her rifle raised at the entrance of the cave. Ira, the one who had given Seja her grenades, climbed on top of the wrecked fighter, and attempted to pry the cockpit open.

Ira eventually managed to pry open the cockpit as the rest of the Corsairs returned to Seja empty-handed. There was no one inside.

"Well, I guess Uldren left," Alpha squad's leader said.

The leader of Alpha squad was about to open the comms to Petra when a bullet suddenly seared through her head.

"Crap!" Seja yelled, and everyone took cover.

Alpha squad's leader fell forward, dropping her gun. The cave was too dark to see properly, but Seja could tell it wasn't a Cabal who shot her.

Another shot hit the rock Seja was hiding behind.

"What do we do?" Ira whispered to Seja.

"I don't know this time," Seja responded.

Then suddenly an idea popped up in her head.

"Nevermind, wait here. I'm going to draw the enemy out," she said.

She stood up, and ran to a different rock before Ira could say anything. As she was running, a shot hit her in the side, and she fell forward. Green healed her right away, and she quickly hid behind the rock.

She could hear a frustrated grunt, and then movement. Their assailant was coming toward her. She hopped over the rock and sprinted forward again, this time dodging the shot that came for her.

She heard another grunt, and then the sound of a knife being unsheathed. She slung her rifle over her back, and pulled her sidearm from its holster. She wasn't going to die today. She stood up, and her assailant grabbed her shoulder.

Seja could faintly see who was attacking her. It was an Awoken. It had a brown cloak on, and orange eyes. She saw the shimmer of a knife in the darkness, pulled away from the attacker, and shot at them.

She hit them in the shoulder, but they shrugged it off, attempting to punch her. She blocked the blow with her forearm, and kicked them in the stomach. She grabbed their shoulders and threw them onto the ground, pinning them down with her foot, and pointing her sidearm at them.

The rest of the soldiers got up from their cover, and trained their weapons on the attackers head. Green appeared the provide light.

They could now see his face. He had faint white markings on his cheeks, his hair was long and black. He looked familiar.

"Uldren," Seja said out loud.

"Oh. A Guardian," he said, staring at Green.

"What the hell is your problem!?" shouted the leader of Bravo squad, walking up with her rifle pointed right at Uldren's forehead.

"I'm sorry, but it'd take too long to explain," he responded.

They heard an explosion, and the entire cave began shaking. Seja looked down and saw Uldren with an evil grin in his face.

"Shit, we need to get out of here," Ira said.

"You guys go, I'll make sure Uldren doesn't get out of here," Seja said.

"Noble. I'll contact you when we find the way out," Bravo leader said to Seja.

Seja nodded and looked back at Uldren, now looking more pissed than evil. The rest of the soldiers spread out around the cave.

"Not much of a talker," Uldren said over the sound of crumbling rocks.

"I have nothing to say to you," Seja said, still pointing her gun at his head.

Two rocks fell from the ceiling, and collided with each other; one of them flew in a different direction, and smashed into Green causing the cave to grow dark again.

She felt Uldren slide from under her, and he grabbed the knife. Seja could barely see, but she dodged the incoming blow. She ducked under another, and fired at Uldren's chest. She heard him yelp, and fall backward.

Before she could pin him down again; he got up, and stabbed the blade right into Seja's stomach. She screamed over the crumbling of rocks, and her whole world faded away.


	10. Chapter 9

THE GULCH

THE GULCH, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Uldiks stood on a ridge with his barons beside him, waiting for the perfect time to strike the Red Legion convoy that was about to pass them.

His Dregs, Vandals, Captains, and Shanks were hiding in the undergrowth, awaiting his word.

Uldiks didn't have a real name. He was cast out from his house. He didn't bother joining with the House of Exile because he had heard bad things about them; he scoured the plains of the Reef, searching for purpose until he met an Awoken named Uldren.

Together he and Uldren formed the House of Crows, running operations across the solar system, stealing from Cabal and other Eliksni houses alike.

He heard the sound of Cabal marching, and motioned for his barons to get into their positions. He watched the road below him with his four eyes. The Red Legion soldiers marched in front of one of their large 'Goliath' tanks.

He whispered into his comms to his friends hiding in the bushes. It was time. The Goliath tank passed underneath him, and he jumped onto its head. The rest of the Eliksni bursting out of the bushes and tackling Legionaries.

Uldiks pulled the shock-cutter from his belt, and jammed it into the head of the tank, cutting it apart before it could fire. All he could hear now was the sound of shock weapons against slug weapons, and the sound of dying Cabal.

He sliced an incoming Legionary in the chest, and beckoned one of his barons forward to extract the secrets hidden in the tank. He hopped down from the head of the tank, and crushed in the heads of two Legionaries below him, spraying his feet with oil.

He ran forward, and personally slew the last of the Cabal guards. Then his communicator started to flash. Uldren had set a trap for the Awoken and it had sprung. Everything was coming together nicely.

Rian's ship flew over the Gulch, a Cabal controlled area in the EDZ. Or at least it was Cabal controlled. Rian and Gariks materialized onto the ground, and searched the aftermath of a large battle.

Strewn about the ground was dead Cabal, and dead Eliksni. But mostly dead Cabal. There was even a destroyed Goliath tank, one that looked fresh and hadn't been fired at all yet. She walked around the dead bodies, and scavenged ammo for John's slug rifle that he was so fond of.

Gariks walked the other direction, scavenging the dead Eliksni for armour and weapons. He stripped off his Dreg armour out of Rian's view, and began to take the pieces of armour off a dead Vandal. He attached the spiky shoulder plates, and then the chestpiece.

Soon he was in fully clad in Vandal armour, and he picked up a shock rifle from the ground. He located a dead Captain, whose armour was too large for Gariks to wear, and looked around its dead body for a shrapnel launcher.

But something off in the distance caught his eye. A dying Servitor. He quickly sprinted towards it and checked to see what parts it needed.

"Rian!" he shouted without attaching the translator to the Vandal helmet.

He heard fast footsteps behind him, and turned around to see Rian slow down behind him.

"You look nice," she said.

Gariks simply nodded, he had no idea what she said. He pointed to the dying Servitor, and pointed out the damaged parts that needed replacing. As Rian examined the Servitor, he attached the translator to the inside of his new helmet.

"It's ether processor is intact," he said, "but it cannot fly, speak, or fight."

"We don't need it to fight do we?" Rian turned around.

"We do not need it to fight, but it would be beneficial. And without all of its pieces in their places it will die out. We must save it."

"Well, I can look around for replacements. How long before it dies out."

"About fifteen planetary rotations."

Rian nodded, and ran off to look for more dead Servitors. Gariks turned away from the Servitor and noticed another dead Captain with shock blades next to its dead body, and he smiled inside his helmet.

THE FARM

THE FARM, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

John and Heft hopped over the fence at the end of the football field, each holding large wooden crates in their hands.

They barely talked to each other because of how they experienced most of their Guardian lives by each other's side, so they never had anything new to discuss.

"Sooo, uh, what do you think of Rian?" Heft asked.

"Uh. She's nice I guess," John replied awkwardly.  
"Just trying to start a conversation."

"I know."

They advanced into fields of tall grass, the farm just barely in sight behind them. They made it the rest of the way in silence, but when they got to the spot where the ship was supposed to be there was nothing there.

"Did we go the wrong way?" Heft asked.

"No this is definitely the spot," John replied.

He looked around, not only was the ship gone, but Rian and Gariks were nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe they just left without telling us," Heft said.

"Yeah that's probably it," John said, walking up to the tall hill that the ship was normally parked at the base of.

He set his crate down at the base of the hill and sat next to it. Heft set his crate down and set next to John. He lifted the top of his crate up and pulled out a sealed glass of blue liquid. Heft popped the lid off the glass and began drinking it.

"Excuse me but what the hell is that?" John asked, not knowing that Exos could drink things.

"Coolant. Keeps me clean and feeling fresh," he said, and jokingly raised the glass towards John as if he was asking him if we wanted a sip.

John waved him away and stared forward into the deep blue of the night. The nice view of the sky behind the shard of the Traveler didn't last long however, because Rian's ship appeared right in front of him.

He cussed under his breath, and stood up as the ship landed. Rian and Gariks appeared next to the ship. Gariks looked very different. He had much more amour on now than he did before, his helmet had horns on the side and covered his whole face except for his eyes. His shoulder armour had three spikes on each side.

"Uh, lookin' good," John said.

Heft just gave Gariks a 'what's up' nod.

"So you've been out getting Gariks some armour?" John asked Rian.

"Well, he does have new armour and weapons, but that isn't why we were gone," she responded.

"So then why were you gone?"

"Go check the cargo hold to see for yourself."

John started to think this was some kind of surprise. He then entered the ship and walked to the cargo hold. It wasn't a very large ship, but it had multiple rooms. He walked in the cargo hold and saw a big purple ball. It was a Servitor.

The Servitor's 'eye', which was a hollow purple circle, was dim and blinking as if it was about to fail. The armour on the sides was burned and torn, like someone tried to pull it off. Its outer shell was riddled with bullet holes.

"Damn, what did they do to you?" he asked quietly.

The Servitor didn't respond, and if it could he wouldn't understand it. He turned to his right and saw an overflowing crate of slug rifle magazines, Rian probably got those for him. Then he turned and looked at the Servitor's shell again. The bullet holes were made from Cabal weapons. The Cabal tore this poor thing apart.

As John spent time around Gariks he felt like the Eliksni weren't all ugly four-eyed aliens that tried to attack the city. And as far as he knew, Servitors were mechanical. He has heard them speaking to other Eliksni on the battlefield, so maybe they were just artificial intelligences.

"Cabal tried to kill Servitor," Gariks' voice made John jump.

"I've seen these all over battlefields. What do you use these for?" John asked his Eliksni companion.

"Servitors synthesize Ether. Eliksni require Ether to survive."

"Huh."

Gariks walked up to the Servitor, and put his hand over its eye. The eye began to blink slower, it was still conscious, and it seemed to relax near him.

"This Servitor is dying," he said, looking back up at John, "it must be saved. They may not be living, but they think and act as we do. And I am running out of Ether."

John nodded, and Gariks stood up as Heft and Rian entered the room; each carrying a crate of food and water. Heft seemed to not notice the Servitor on the floor, and he just left the room without speaking. John couldn't figure him sometimes.

"So, where do we go to fix this servitor?" John asked Gariks.

"Eliksni foundries, maybe a Ketch even?" he responded.

John and Rian looked at each other.

"We don't have our light, so we might die. But that doesn't mean Gariks has to die," Rian said.

To Rian's surprise, John silently nodded instead of objecting, or yelling at her for saving Gariks instead of themselves.

John finally spoke, "then that's where we need to go."

CORSAIR INFIRMARY

VESTIAN OUTPOST, THE REEF

Seja woke up in a dark room. She was lying on a bed at the end of the room. She looked to her left to see Green sitting on a table next to her bed. She couldn't tell if he was dead or not, but his shell was dirty, and he didn't respond to her.

"You're awake," Seja heard Petra's voice as the room's door opened.

Seja tried to look up, but her stomach felt as if it were on fire.

"Hey…" she said quietly, using all the energy she could..

"You've been out for a while," Petra said, "Ira turned back and pulled you out before the whole cave collapsed."

Seja tried to say something, but couldn't.

"Don't worry, you don't need to use all your energy here," Petra said, sympathetically, "you'll be fine in a bit. Assuming Green isn't dead."

"No. No way he's dead," Seja said confidently.

Seja reached out and poked Green's shell. The shell shuddered.

"Just give him a while and he'll be back up," Seja said.

"Hmm. Good. Well about the mission," Petra began, "it did _not _go as planned. We couldn't have seen that coming, so it isn't anyone's fault but Uldren's. You said you wouldn't let me down, and you didn't. Uldren may have escaped but we will find him again."

"I knew I wouldn't let you down."

"Well get some rest, and whenever Green decides to wake up, come to me."

Petra left the room, and Seja laid back in her bed; drifting off to sleep.


	11. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

The ship flew low and slow, careful not to be spotted. They had to land some distance away to not be spotted by the Eliksni's defenses.

"Remember Heft, quiet," John warned. Titans weren't known for stealth.

Heft nodded, and slung his shotgun over his back. They were only a kilometre from the Dusk foundry, so they could walk there easily. John walked forward, Heft watched the left, and Rian watched the right. Gariks was close behind, with his new shrapnel launcher in hand.

John heard movement in the trees ahead.

"Stop! I heard something," he whispered. Everyone stopped moving and went completely silent.

He heard the noise again. It must be Marauders. He made sure his rifle was fully loaded, and scanned the forest until he saw a flash of blue. He squeezed the trigger, and saw the Marauder fade into visibility with its head gone, and Ether spraying out of its neck.

"Yep, Marauders," he said.

He heard swishing noises from behind him. He turned around, but before he could take out his assailant he saw Gariks slice the air with a shock blade. The Marauder in front of him fell backwards with a giant slash across its chest.

John gave a nod of approval, and stood back up. They continued through the forest.

The four arrived at wall outside the Dusk foundry with no further complications. Those Marauders weren't able to get any word out. Gariks felt the wall for any hidden compartments or entrances. He found a piece of the wall that wasn't attached all the way and pushed it in.

A small section of the wall, only big enough to crawl under, opened in front of them. Gariks motioned them forward, and crawled through the opening. There were multiple towers inside the walls that weren't too different from the House of Devil's Archon Forge in the Plaguelands.

The ground wasn't artificial, but it was completely flat. The walls covered a large area in the forests. The only other buildings other than the towers were storage buildings, a dock, and a small hangar that could hold about two Skiffs.

Gariks jogged forward and found a console he could access. The Guardians stood guard as he tapped away at the keys. He located a storage room where they kept Servitor parts, and beckoned the Guardians forward.

Right as they turned the corner, a Vandal with three Dregs spotted them.

"Uh. I can explain," Gariks started to say, but the Eliksni opened fire.

Gariks rolled to the side, and pulled his shrapnel launcher into his arms. John shoot the Vandal in the head, and Heft shot a Dreg through the chest with a shotgun. Gariks hopped up, and dispatched the last two Dregs with his shrapnel launcher, setting their rags on fire.

"We must find the Servitor parts," Gariks said, beckoning the Guardians once more.

They sprinted towards one of the storage buildings before any more guards showed up, opened the door, and went inside. Gariks sealed the door behind them to make sure no one followed them.

Rian's Ghost appeared next to her and provided light in the room. On the walls of the building was racks of Servitors. Luckily they were deactivated.

"Well, that's nice," John said out loud.

"Let's hope these things don't attack us," said Heft.

Gariks made his way to the back of the room and accessed another console. He was careful not to activate any of the Servitors, and detached one from the rack.

"Why don't we just take one of these Servitors?" Rian asked.

"Servitors think and act as living beings," Gariks explained, "dying Servitor on ship will see us as saviours and will trust us. These will not."

The Servitor that detached hit the floor with a loud metal clang_._ Gariks whipped out his shock blades and began cutting the shell off the deactivated servitor, then cutting into the middle of its eye and taking the circular part.

He then cut the three fins off the Servitor, and then set all the pieces up for transmat.

"Wait, we cannot leave yet," Rian's Ghost appeared next to her, "I can feel light here."

"Motes of light?" Gariks asked, "maybe they were sent here?"

"I'll stay and cover Gariks, you two find those motes," Rian ordered.

John and Heft nodded and exited the building, sealing the door behind them. Gariks and Rian watched the door, but they heard noises behind them and turned around to see purple light.

John and Heft ran across the foundry, using Console as a navigator to find the motes.

"This way," Console whispered, flying to another storage building identical to the Servitor one.

The two followed, but as they made it to the door they heard explosions behind them. They turned around and looked at the Servitor building, and as they set their eyes on it, one of its walls exploded.

"Heft, you get the motes," John said before running to the building.

"Why don't I get the fun job," Heft complained before entering the mote building.

As John made his way, he saw Rian and Gariks sprint out of the breach in the wall. A whole ton of Servitors were following them from behind. Gariks fired his shrapnel launcher into the eye of a Servitor and it spun out of control. All of its armour and interior parts flew around the foundry, and it exploded in a shower of Ether.

John fired his slug rifle into the closest Servitor, quickly tearing through it. Slug rifles were good weapons, and he was glad he had one. He heard two small 'pop' sounds and saw two rockets fly past him, impacting a group of Servitors and blowing them apart.

He turned around and saw Heft standing next to an Eliksni crate, holding his Two-Tailed Fox in his hands. On the racks of the wall was about thirty Servitors, and they had only killed ten.

The four soldiers heard the familiar woosh of Rian's ship appearing above them. They materialized into the ship, leaving the swarm of Servitors behind, and flew upward as quickly as they could.

In the transmat room was the Eliksni crate, and the Servitor parts that Gariks had acquired. Gariks quickly picked up the parts and ran as fast as he could to the cargo hold. Heft dragged the crate of motes there as well, and Rian sat down in the pilot seat.

When John saw Rian clearly, the whole right side of her body was covered in void burns.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said, but he could tell from her voice she wasn't.

"Come on, lay down and I'll fly."

"Fine," she accepted she was hurt, but when John saw her face he could tell she was relieved.

Rian walked to the cargo hold where the Servitor was being kept, and saw Gariks working on it. The spot in the middle of its eye that was missing before was now filled, and Gariks was attaching the fins to the sides.

As Rian entered it began making noises, and it started shaking violently. Gariks took off his helmet, and said something to it in Eliksni. It seemed to calm down, and Gariks put his helmet back on.

"He does not like lightbearers," Gariks said without looking at Rian.

"Well, he'll have to learn that we aren't all bad," she said, holding onto her side, noticing Gariks referred to it as a he.

She knew the Eliksni worshipped the Servitors as gods, at least they worshipped the Prime Servitors. If it weren't for the Servitors their race would have died out long before finding Earth.

The Servitor began to speak again, but Rian couldn't understand its deep booming voice.

"He does not like it here," Gariks translated.

Rian began to pity the poor thing. Even though it was just a machine. She wanted to get up and hold it, but her whole body burned so she laid down.

"Tell him he's going to have to get used to it then," she groaned.

Gariks took off his helmet again and spoke to the Servitor. It began to slowly shake again.

"Don't worry," he said after putting his helmet back on, "he will get used to it."

FIREBASE ZEUS

NORTHERN WILDS, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Uldiks watched over the hill. He has done this too many times, and now he was doing it again. This time attacking a full base instead of just a simple convoy.

"Me and my barons are in position," he said into his communications device on his upper arm.

"Good. I will launch the distraction," said the soft Awoken voice of Uldren Sov.

Above the base a Skiff appeared, and it immediately triggered the bases alarms. The Red Legion soldiers that guarded the entrance of the base quickly ran inside, and closed the door behind them.

Uldiks jumped off the hill and advanced to the door, stabbing it in the centre and cutting it open. Once the door was open, his soldiers walked out of their hiding spots. The Cabal guards ran back down the hallway, only to run into a surging crowd of Dregs and Vandals.

He heard the faint screams of the Cabal and watched as the Dregs tore them to shreds with their daggers. Crowds of Dregs surged through the halls of the Cabal base, running over and tearing apart anything they come across.

Everyone moved through the other halls except for Uldiks, who continued forward. He was so tall he had to crouch in the hallway. When the door in front of him opened he saw a Cabal Phalanx in front of him, shielding two Legionaries behind him.

The shield wasn't enough to hold Uldiks off, and kicked the Phalanx onto the ground. He fired his giant shrapnel launcher at the two Legionaries behind him. Another Legionary turned the corner of a hall ahead of him, and Uldiks stabbed him with the flaming barrel of his shrapnel launcher, smiling at the deep screams.

The next door led Uldiks outside, where Skiffs were appearing and disappearing, dropping off Dregs. Outside was a large square area full of landed Harvesters and Threshers. Under his feet was the oil that the Cabal used in their armour.

A Cabal warship appeared above them and launched ripper pods onto the ground. The pods dissolved and Legionaries jumped at Uldiks, which he quickly decapitated with the blades on his lower arms.

The Dregs that finished wreaking havoc on the inside of the base began to flow out of the doors, and climb over the dormant Cabal vehicles. A ripper pod smashed into a group of Dregs, causing them to fly into the air, and land far away.

Uldiks heard a deep boom and looked up in the sky to see what looked like another sun. It was red, and disappeared after a few seconds, leaving a Ketch behind. The Ketch flew over the base while firing its weapons at the much smaller Cabal Warship.

The Ketch circle around and fired again, gutting the Warship with its energy weapons. Explosions tore the metal on the ship, and it started to fall apart onto the base. Pieces of the Warship slammed into the base itself, luckily not hitting any of the Eliksni.

_Beautiful. _Uldiks thought, continuing towards their target. The reason they were attacking was to steal Cabal Harvesters, and use those to steal even more equipment from the Cabal. His Dregs were already using Cabal slug rifles, and if he wanted to he could drop some Cabal Interceptors onto the ground.

Uldiks set beacons on the ground next to every Harvester he found, so he could transmat them up to the Ketch. The House of Crows was a new house, the Ketch hovering in the sky was their only one.

It occasionally fired at the base to weaken it and kill the Cabal survivors. The Red Legion had a very large fleet, but they probably wouldn't waste it on a single expendable base.

"Are the beacons set?" Uldiks heard Uldren's voice.

"Yes my prince," Uldiks responded.

Uldren was now an enemy of the Awoken people, but he was still their prince. But now he was the House of Crow's prince, taking the place of their Kell. Uldiks was simply an Archon. They didn't have a Prime Servitor either, but they don't need one. Not yet.

"Excellent work Uldiks," Uldren responded, "return to the Ketch, and prepare the Harvesters for transmat."

Uldiks looked up and saw Uldren's ship fly over the base, towards the Ketch. He rounded his Eliksni, and they boarded the Harvesters and Skiffs. Uldiks got in his own Skiff, and together all of the ships flew up to the Ketch.

RIAN'S SHIP

THE FARM, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Their ship landed at their normal spot, at the base of a hill outside the farm. When Rian woke up it was night. Her side still hurt, and the armour was still blackened. She did feel a lot better, but wondered why she still hurt. Her Ghost should've healed her.

"Ghost?" she asked, looking around the room.

When she spoke, the Servitor across from her turned on and floated up. Rian could see Gariks fully repaired it. The Servitor slowly approached her, its armour lifted up and it started to glow purple. A purple shield formed around Rian. She felt a mix of fear, and confusion, but the burn on her side started to feel much better.

"Servitors are unique yes?" the door opened and Gariks stepped inside, "could not find your drone, may have left it at foundry?"

The thought of this scared her. She didn't have her light, but she still needed her Ghost. And if her light came back, then the Ghost would be even more useful. She didn't even give her Ghost a name, no matter how attached she became to it.

"Where are Heft and John?" she asked, shoving the thought of her missing Ghost deep in her mind.

"At farm, said Hawthorne brought back new Guardian."

"What's so special about this new Guardian?"

"They have their light back."

Rian knew they would be able to get their light back at the shard! No matter how much she wanted her light, she was glad she took in Gariks. He was a good friend, and he was good at fighting for a Dreg.

Gariks beckoned the Servitor towards him, and it slowly moved. They exchanged a few words and the Servitor floated back to its spot.

"His name is Hegiks," Gariks said to Rian.

"Didn't know they talked," Rian said, putting her head back and resting it.

"As I have stated. Think and act as living creatures."

She heard the swishing sound of people entering the ship, and heard John and Heft chatting about something, she couldn't tell what.

"Hey Rian, guess what," Heft said in an excited voice, almost laughing.

"A Guardian got their light back?" she responded.

"Oh… you know?" he replied, sounding disappointed this time.

"Gariks told me."

Heft turned around, and walked to the cockpit; disappointed. Then John entered the room and saw the Servitor staring at him.  
"Woah woah! Hey buddy…" he said awkwardly, putting his hands up and leaning away from it.

The Servitor began to say something.

"Hegiks asks if he should kill you," Gariks said with whatever the closest an Eliksni could get to a smirk under his helmet.

"Uh… no he should not."

Gariks let out a laugh, the first time Rian has ever heard him laugh. Hegiks really seemed to make him happier. John walked into the room all the way, staying as far away from Hegiks as he could, and then sat down on the floor next to Rian.

"How are you doing?" he asked sympathetically.

"Better, but my Ghost is missing," she replied.

"How did you lose your Ghost?"

"I don't know. Gariks thinks I lost her at the foundry, but we can't go back to check."

"Do you think you could survive without her?"

"No. She can't resurrect me but she can heal me."

John stood up.

"Maybe I could search the ship?" he said.

"Worth a try. If she's not here than she has to be at the foundry."

John turned away from Rian and exited the cargo hold. He searched up and down the ship's compartments, not finding anything of use let alone a Ghost.

He went to the cockpit where Heft and Gariks were talking about something he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to, and searched the compartments in there. He still couldn't find anything.

"What's got you up and about?" Heft asked, turning away from Gariks.

"I'm looking for Rian's Ghost," John replied.

"Oh. If her Ghost is missing we need to find it."

"Obviously. The only place we think it would be is the foundry, and we are not going back there."

"Why not, it was fun."

"Because her Ghost is probably dead, and the place is probably swarming with Fallen now."

Heft just turned back, continuing to talk to Gariks. He was obviously disappointed that he didn't get to go out and shoot things. As he turned back towards the cargo hold he hoped Heft wouldn't get bored enough to kill Gariks.

"Your Ghost isn't here," he said walking back into the cargo hold.

"Then she must really be at the foundry."


	12. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

VESTIAN OUTPOST

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

Seja entered the outpost again, and sprinted to Petra's post. She was eager to get back into action.

"So you've got a mission for me?" she asked.

"Correct," Petra began, "when you first arrived here you were brought to a Fallen crime lord named Spider. He saved you from being a prisoner of a nightclub owner named Azilis. Azilis has been taking prisoners for years, but that time he went too far. I would like you to attack his nightclub and take him out. Also, he and Spider have been at each others throats for a while. A pair of his associates will be joining you."

"Sounds like fun," Seja said excitedly.

"Oh it will be."

_Time to exact some revenge._

THIEVES LANDING

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

The place Seja was headed was inside an asteroid, so she had to use a teleportation mechanism to arrive. Once the ship stopped moving she exited and looked around.

There were Eliksni everywhere, discussing business, or fighting with each other. She ignored anyone that approached her, and went to the place Petra told her to go. She walked up the steps and waited outside the door for her backup.

Spider wanted Azilis dead as much as Petra did.

"Behind you," a deep voice rang out behind her.

She turned around and saw one of Spider's spiky guards standing there. The other dropped behind her.

"You're my backup then," she said.

The spiky Eliksni nodded, and she turned back toward the door.

"Leave entering to me," she said.

Once they rounded a corner they heard music, loud banging on drums. They rounded another corner and saw the club itself. There was a large dance floor, a DJ in the front, and a Vandal in the back. The Vandal had drum sticks in all four of his hands.

In one corner of the floor was a pair of Dregs, that looked completely baked on some drug. They were laughing and chatting with each other.

Seja had never seen this side of Eliksni society, and she enjoyed the music so much she almost didn't want to shoot up the place. But she had to, and there was definitely more to this club than just the dance floor.

She didn't even think these Eliksni knew what the owner of the club was doing. Seja slid her sidearm from her holster and approached the bouncer. It looked like a Dreg with a Vandal helmet, and it was holding a staff with a blade on the end.

Once the bouncer saw Seja it put its other hand on the staff and approached her.

"We don't get many Awoken here, pay up princess," it said, staring into Seja's eyes.

Seja quickly whipped up her pistol and popped the head off the bouncer. The sound of the music drowned out the shot, and they were out of the view of the windows. Spider's associates dropped from the ceiling behind her and followed her in as she unlocked the door.

The door opened and the music began blasting into her ears, she slowly walked in. There were Shanks navigating around the raving Eliksni with drinks on their heads. One approached Seja and she took one of the glasses.

_This is actually a pretty nice place _she thought, but she didn't want to feel sympathetic. Some of the Eliksni saw Spider's associates and stopped dancing, quickly parting to let them through. Maybe they didn't know Spider and Azilis were at each other's necks.

When the drummer noticed Seja and the associates he stopped drumming, and quickly hopped off his stool. In the corner of her eye she still saw the Dregs laughing like nothing was happening. They were definitely high on something.

"Do you need something?" the drummer asked Seja.

"Where is Azilis?" she whispered as the DJ on the other side of the room turned on some music.

"What does Spider want from Azilis now?" the drummer asked.

"Dead."

The Vandal looked away for a few seconds and nodded. Maybe she didn't have to kill everyone. The drummer walked toward a door at the back of the room and beckoned Seja forward.

"Through here, do not tell anyone I brought you to him," the drummer said and turned away.

Seja nodded and threw him a small brick of glimmer. He caught it and went back to his stool.

Seja and the associates continued through the door, leaving the music behind. It was almost completely dark, so Green appeared to give light. She couldn't believe what she saw next.

CROWSHIP ULDIKS-SOV

NORTHERN WILDS, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

The one ship of the House of Crows flew over the northern wilds. Uldiks entered the bridge of the ship and saw Uldren sitting in a throne.

"You called for me?" he asked, putting his four arms behind his back.

"Yes Uldiks. I found another target, this time Fallen rather than Cabal," Uldren said without turning.

It had been a while since Uldiks fought his own kind. He wasn't particularly fond of it, but he always did what had to be done.

"Duskship Zetiks-Mik has been spotted over a foundry further south," Uldren explained, "This particular foundry makes a special type of Servitor, called light-eaters. They are able to turn the Traveler's light into Ether."

"You want these Servitors?" Uldiks asked.

"Correct. One team will attack the foundry, and we will attack the Duskship."

"We do not have the soldiers to properly attacked a Duskship. This attack is doomed to fail."

Uldren then turned to Uldiks.

"We succeeded in attacking a Cabal firebase, and we destroyed their warship. Are you doubting me Archon?" he asked, his voice full of fury.

"Your abilities no, but your planning. All your plan is is that there will be two teams attacking House Dusk. What do we do when we get there? How will we get there?"

Uldren furiously stood up from the throne.

"I am the Kell of this House. You are the Archon. No matter how high ranking you are, you listen to me!"

Uldren walked right up to Uldiks, staring up into his eyes. Uldren was only as tall as Uldiks' legs. He could step on Uldren if he wanted to, but he didn't.

"Yes, Prince," Uldiks said at last, and turned away from Uldren.

He walked back down to the hangar where his soldiers were assembled.

"Prepare for battle warriors of the Crow," he shouted, addressing his entire house, "Uldren has asked us to assault two House Dusk positions at once. Half of you will assault their foundry south from here, and the other half will be with me and Uldren. We are attacking Duskship Zetiks-Mik."

He heard roars of approval coming mostly from Dregs and Vandals, but the Captains looked wary.

"How will we assault a Ketch with half of our soldiers gone?" one of the Captains asked.

"Uldren has not told me. I doubt his planning, but it is wrong for me to do so. We will attack regardless, and any concerns shall be brought to Uldren himself."

The members of the House began to disperse, and Uldiks went to his own Skiff. He felt the Ketch move beneath his feet.

DUSKSHIP ZETIKS-MIK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Misraaks checked off the last of the cargo. He was getting ready to head to Titan, but needed to stop at the Reef to get some supplies from Spider.

He headed to the bridge of the Duskship when he was approached by one of his navigators.

"We've got a threat inbound," the navigator, Devis, said.

"What is it?" asked Misraaks.

"Eliksni, Ketch maybe."

_What other houses exist other than Dusk and Hunters? _Misraaks asked himself. He was a member of the House of Wolves before the Houses came together to form Dusk. The only other House he knew of was the House of Hunters.

Off the bow of the ship formed a red ball of energy. From the energy came a Ketch. This Ketch had a black stripe running from its bow to its stern.

"Unknown House ship identify yourselves," Misraaks shouted into the communicator on the bridge.

The deep voice of an Eliksni Archon responded.

"We are the House of Crows, and your Servitors belong to us."

EMPTY TANK

THIEVES LANDING, THE TANGLED SHORE

In front of Seja and Spider's associates were cages, possibly hundreds. Each cage held either a Hive Thrall, some type of red alien hound, and starved Dregs.

"What has Azilis done?" one of the associates asked, not expecting an answer.

The associates went up to the cages that held Dregs, and pulled the bars off. The ones that were alive slowly got up and left without looking back. One Dreg launched itself at an associate, but he threw it off without killing it, but knocking it unconscious.

They continued past the cages, freeing only the Eliksni. Seja fought the urge to kill the Thrall. Hopefully Azilis didn't know they were there.

They finally saw light in the dark room, and went through the door. They were in a large hallway that had two tracks on the floor, probably for transporting prisoners somewhere. As they followed the track they entered an arena, and the door shut behind them.

"Great," Seja said under her breath.

In front of them were two Eliksni Wretches dueling with their staffs. Behind them was a large purple dome with about ten Wretches, and a Marauder sitting in the middle on its own throne. It was probably Azilis. There were doors on the walls next to the dome.

When the Wretches saw the three enter the arena they stopped fighting.

"Oh what is this?" the Marauder's voice boomed, "a Guardian? Alongside Spider's associates?"

"Azilis?" Seja asked.

"No, no, Azilis isn't here. But I can tell you who is."

The Wretches stepped aside and the doors opened.

"Death."

About a dozen Wretches ran out from each door and charged toward Seja. One of Spider's associates fired their shrapnel launcher and took down two Wretches with the single shot.

Seja fired at the head of a Wretch, and the ground around it exploded into arc energy. The arc energy burned three Wretches around it, and killed them all. Six down, twenty more.

One of Spider's associates dodged a Wretch, then it tried to dodge another one. But the second Wretch cut a large portion of the spikes off his back. The fighting suddenly ceased, and everyone looked at the associate.

"If Spider doesn't dock your arms, cut off your head, and steal you Ether," he began, "I will."

He grabbed the Wretch's arm, and snapped it off. He took the staff and shoved it into the next one. The fighting continued. Seja grabbed a knife from her belt and hurled it into the chest of a Wretch running toward her. It fell over, and cause another to trip; who she shot in the back.

The associate with the shrapnel launcher stabbed the chest of a Wretch with his gun, burning its rags and skin. Then the associate with the staff spun around and knocked two of them on the ground, then he stabbed each of them.

Thirteen more. Seja slid under the legs of a Wretch and shoved her knife into its back. She cut off the head of the next one, and dodged the spray of Ether. She shot the next two with her sidearm. Spider's associates were dealing with the last nine.

The associate with the shrapnel launcher flew up in the air for a second, and came down on his back. He crushed three Wretches simply using the spikes on his back. The associate with the staff stabbed a Wretch through the chest and caught another one with the blade. Four remaining.

Seja grabbed three of her knifes, and slide the handles in between her fingers. When she saw the opportunity she took it. She flicked her hand forward as if she was throwing a frisbee, letting go of the knives. The three knives sliced into the heads of three Wretches, and she dropped the final one with her pistol.

She heard the Marauder let out a frustrated grunt.

"If my guards can't kill you, then I will!" he yelled as the dome dropped.

The ten Wretches in front of him charged forward. And the Marauder pulled a shrapnel launcher off its back.

Seja slid under the blade of an incoming Wretch and pushed him into the side of another one. She grabbed the staff and jammed it through their chests, pinning them to the ground. The Marauder fired.

She dodged most of the shrapnel that fired, but one piece caught her cloak. The cloth set on fire, and she quickly tore it off from around her neck. She threw the burning cloak at a Wretch, setting its own rags on fire.

The associate with the staff picked one of his missing spikes off the ground, and stuck it through the eye slit of an incoming Wretch, causing it to fall backward, and the staff launched forward.

Seja rolled backward, and grabbed the handle of the staff. The Marauder teleported in front of her. He was tall enough for her to not have to slide under his legs. She ran between his legs, and sliced his ankles with the blade.

She heard him yelp and stumble forward, but he got back up right after.

"Going to take a lot more to kill me, Awoken scum," he said, firing his shrapnel launcher at a higher speed than Seja has ever seen.

She dodged the first two shots, but a third struck her in the chest. She flew backward, and slammed into a wall.

"Going to take a lot more to kill me, Eliksni scum," she said, standing up as Green healed her. She quickly glanced at Spider's associates as they killed the last Wretch, "no offense."

"We know who you meant," said the one with the staff before jumping at the Marauders back.

The Marauder yelped in surprise and tried to shake him off his back. The associate shoved the blade of his staff at the back of the Marauders neck. The blue in his eyes turned to black, and he fell forward.

The associate hopped off his back, and turned his body over so he was on his back. He pulled a large jar from a hidden compartment on his armour, and picked one of his spikes off the ground. He then stuck the spike into a tube that lead to the Marauder's helmet, and Ether sprayed from the tube. Once the jar was full he closed it, and put it back in his hidden compartment.

"If that wasn't Azilis who was it?" Seja asked the associate.

"Probably his brother," he said, "his name is Rezilis."

Seja laughed to herself at the weird Eliksni naming as the associates suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue. As she walked back to the dance floor, she couldn't hear the music.

She entered and saw one of the starved Dregs on the ground, with the drummer Vandal holding him close. The Vandal looked up as Seja neared.

"Tell me," he said, "did Azilis do this?"

Seja nodded.

The Vandal turned away. People could never tell an Eliksni's emotion from the eyes, but Seja could tell he was in pain. She figured the dying Dreg was a relative.

"Looks like I'm done here," the Vandal said before smashing his drum sticks.

The room was mostly empty except for the Vandal, and a few Dregs here and there. Even the Dregs that were getting high in the corner were gone.

Seja walked back up the stairs without saying a word.

DUSKSHIP ZETIKS-MIK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Misraaks had every entrance to the ship secured. He had valuable cargo, and the Duskship wasn't armed. All the ship's weapons had been replaced with extra storage room, and they no longer had an escort.

He had no idea who the House of Crows was, or where they came from, or why they want Misraaks' ship. He heard an explosion and felt the ship shake. They were making their own entrance!

Misraaks stayed at the bridge to keep it secure. He looked at a screen that showed a schematic of the ship. Indeed one of the sides of the ship was flashing red, indicated a hull breach.

He didn't want to leave to the Reef with all of his men and women near a hull breach, but he had to do something to thwart the attackers.

Uldiks waited in an airlock as the Crowship breached the hull of the Duskship. He heard the sounds of rapid footsteps outside the airlock's door. Once again, Uldren's distraction had worked. Once the airlock opened Uldiks sprinted out, and indeed the area was clear.

Dregs ran out from the airlock behind him, eager to get their hands on anything they could steal. The more intelligent Vandals followed, behind them were the Captains. On the other side of the Duskship would be his barons. Diskar, Chorvis, Levik, and Brandor.

The Dusk Vandals that were rapidly headed toward the hull breach noticed what was happening and turned around, only to be swarmed by Dregs. The Dregs tore the Vandals armour apart, and shredded their exoskeletons.

He heard the ship's alarms blaring, and found the nearest console he could access. As he located the room where the Servitors were being stored, the door beside him opened. A Captain about the same size as Uldiks tackled him.

"You dare threaten House Dusk!" he said, wrapping his hands around Uldiks' neck, "your House is not even real!"

Uldiks kicked the Captain off and fired his shrapnel launcher into his chest. The Captain simply shrugged off the impact that would've killed any other Eliksni, and unsheathed a pair of shock blades.

Uldiks cursed under his breath as he ducked under the first swing. The second swing sliced off a plate from the top of his helmet. Uldiks spun around, and tackled the Captain, making him drop the blades.

He pinned him down with his foot, held his shrapnel launcher with one hand, and repeatedly pulled the trigger as fast as he could. The fire melted the Captain's helmet off, and finally killed him.

Once Uldiks turned around he saw a lot of dead House of Dusk Eliksni, too many to count. Under his feet he felt another hull breach, and then the ship started to move.

Misraaks aimed his weapon at the door. He was using a modified shock rifle that fired rapidly, but the shots didn't track his enemies. The door in front of them started to buckle, and then it burst open.

What seemed to be hundreds of Dregs, clad in black rags, swarmed the catwalk of the bridge. Misraaks squeezed the trigger and held it down, firing up to 900 RPM. The heads of the Dregs in front of him popped open, and they fell off the sides of the catwalk.

With the combined fire from Misraaks and his bridge officers, the Dregs never even made it halfway down the catwalk. Soon the Dregs began tripping over their own dead. Whichever House was fighting them obviously wasn't very effective.

Soon no more Dregs came to challenge them. They had all been defeated, but it was too easy. Either this House was bad at attacking, or they had something more in store for them. Misraaks didn't want to make the wrong choice, and didn't look away from the door for anything.

He saw a small sphere roll out from the hallway, and it popped. Smoke sprayed all over the entrance and the catwalk. A bullet flew out from the smoke and struck Devis in the head.

"Devis!" he screamed, but another bullet hit Misraaks' shields.

They were obviously fighting more than just Eliksni. But who would work alongside his people after everything they had done? _The Awoken._

Misraaks stepped back and fired his rifle into the smoke, not sure if he hit anyone until another bullet burst out and tore through his shields. Misraaks stumbled back, but got up quickly. He used his short range teleporter to make it to the navigation console.

The rest of his bridge officers were killed, and then he saw his assailant. An Awoken with orange eyes in a brown cloak. He heard stories of the orange eyed Awoken; they called him Uldren. He heard if you even looked at him the wrong way he would gut you, or that his stare alone was enough to kill a Hive god.

He rapidly tapped at the console, using it for cover. He had to make it to the Reef. He heard a loud boom behind him, and turned around to see a Skiff hovering in front of the window. It fired its cannons, and shattered the transparent steel that they used for windows.

He confirmed the jump. With the window shattered maybe Uldren would go out with him. He stood up from his cover and took aim at Uldren as his shields recharged. He squeezed his trigger, but Uldren was fast. He jumped over the first burst, and slid under the next.

Misraaks had an idea. He jumped down from the bridge platform, and landed on the rounded surface underneath it. He sprinted towards the shattered window, and jumped to the side to avoid a bullet that was shot from Uldren.

He teleported to the hole in the window, and sure enough Uldren followed. The Skiff that blew open the window dropped ten Vandals, all clad in black rags like the Dregs. They fired at him, attempting to take out his shields.

He took the shots, and ran at them with full force. He used his lower arm blades and shoved them through the Vandal's chests. He whipped around, slicing the head off another Vandal, and fired his rifle into the head of the next.

The six remaining Vandals formed a wall as Uldren jumped down from the window. Misraaks continued firing, taking out all the Vandals in a single, long, burst. But he simply couldn't hit Uldren.

_Is he made of magic? _The Skiff followed Misraaks as he stepped backward, firing the cannons behind him. He wasn't going to let the Skiff take him out, and he avoided each shot. He glanced quickly at Uldren as he unsheathed a knife.

Misraaks kept moving back, trying to lead Uldren all the way to the end of the ship. But Uldren flung the knife forward, and it sliced into Misraaks' shoulder. Misraaks fell forward, and pulled out the knife.

He was about to hurl the knife back at Uldren, but when he looked up he saw his face. Misraaks glanced behind him, he was at the edge of the ship. If he moved the slightest bit back further he would fall.

Uldren didn't say anything, and simply smiled.

Uldren rested the heel his boot on the face of Misraaks' helmet. He wanted to grab Uldren's leg and throw him off the edge, but he didn't have the energy. Uldren pushed his foot forward, and Misraaks fell off the ship.


	13. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Once again; John, Heft, Rian, Gariks, and this time Hegiks, flew toward the foundry. But this time there was something happening. There were two Ketches hanging in the sky attached to each other by some type of prefabricated bridge. One Ketch had purple markings, and the other had black. In the foundry they could see stray shots from shock weapons and explosions.

"Oh, looks like the Fallen are having fun without us," said Heft, leaning back in his chair.

As they got close enough to the foundry to land, John saw the purple Ketch start moving. And then he saw something fall off from the bow.

John, Heft, and Gariks exited the ship, leaving Hegiks to keep Rian alive. In front of them were rabid Dregs, part of an unknown House attacking members of the House of Dusk.

"Maybe if we help the House of Dusk, they will give us Rian's Ghost?" John asked.

"Oh, don't be stupid," Heft replied, pulling the charging handle on his auto rifle.

"John is not wrong. We must help my House," Gariks said.

The three jumped forward into the chaos. Heft held down his rifle's trigger, and sprayed a hail of bullets into the Dregs. Gariks sprinted forward with his shock blades in his hands, and began slicing through the Dregs.

As John fired his slug rifle into the enemy Eliksni, he noticed that the Dusk Eliksni weren't shooting him. Maybe they appreciated the help. John fired the slug rifle as fast as he could, burning through the chests of enemy Dregs.

He began to notice that it was mostly Dregs, though there were a few Vandals. Maybe most of them were in the ship in the sky? The number of enemy Dregs dropped dramatically when the Guardians entered the fight. After a few minutes all that remained were Dusk Eliksni.

He looked over and saw the Dusk Eliksni slowly backing away from him. He dropped his gun and held his hands up. When he did this the Eliksni stopped backing up. Gariks walked up to John's side, and took off his helmet.

As Gariks spoke, he saw the Eliksni exchange glances at each other. A Marauder walked up to Gariks and then said something to him. He didn't speak Eliksni, so he had no idea who was saying what.

Gariks put his helmet back on and looked at John.

"They do not know where Rian's Ghost is," he said, "they said to talk to Misraaks."

"Who is Misraaks?" John asked.

Gariks pointed up at the purple ship in the sky, that was slowly moving away from the black one. John nodded, and picked his gun back up. He slung it over his shoulder and headed back for the ship, surprised the Eliksni didn't try to attack him then.

As he entered the ship, they flew up to the Ketch.

DUSKSHIP ZETIKS-MIK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

Uldiks busted down the door to the Servitor room. The Dregs underneath him were now quiet, which was unusual. He heard how Uldren wasted about thirty of his own Dregs assaulting the bridge, and he was furious. His Dregs were stupid, but they were still Eliksni. And they were still members of his house.

He hopped down from the ledge he was standing on, and looked up at the racks of Servitors. There had to be hundreds just in this room. He jammed a transmat beacon into the floor in the middle of the room, and began to take Servitors off the racks.

As he put the Servitors near the beacon, the ship shook again. Across the room on the other ledge stood two Guardians and an Eliksni. He growled and unslung his shrapnel launcher. _How could his own kind ally with the Guardians? _Before he could pull the trigger, a Guardian with big shoulder armour fired a rocket launcher.

It fired two rockets, and they impacted Uldiks in the chest, causing him to fall backwards. His once quiet Dregs started roaring and they ran forward; past Uldiks, making him unable to get back up.

The Dregs were being slaughtered, and when he was finally able to stand up, most of them were dead. He constantly grew frustrated with his own House, and because of Uldren he didn't have the time to discipline them.

He fired his shrapnel launcher at the smaller Guardian but he avoided it. He suddenly felt the ship creak. They were jumping somewhere. He continued rapidly firing his shrapnel launcher, but the Guardian was fast.

The Guardian jumped on top of a crate, he held a Cabal slug rifle in his hands.

Uldiks roared and ran forward. He slammed his foot into the crate, and caused both the crate and the Guardian to fly into the wall behind them. The larger Guardian jumped down next, and fired his rocket launcher again. The two rockets knocked Uldiks back onto the ground.

He could barely move or breath. He tried to get up, but he couldn't. The Guardian's Eliksni jumped down next, and unsheathed two shock swords.

Uldiks used all his energy to stand up, and he teleported away to the bridge as the Eliksni lunged forward.

"Gah! I had him!" Gariks shouted.

John got up from the floor at the side of the room and brushed his armour off.

Suddenly the floor began rumbling, and the metal started to tear apart.

The Duskship entered a jump to somewhere, but he didn't know that the other ship would jump with it. The ship's damaged frame couldn't handle the pressure from the jump.

They climbed to the ledge on their side of the room. They searched for a door to get out of the room, but there wasn't anything. Rian's ship was still back at the foundry where they boarded the Ketch. John wondered if Misraaks was even here.

Everything happened so fast, John was looking forward to a good fight. John heard Gariks yell, and he turned to see him taking a piece of metal off the wall.

"Found a way we can go," he said.

"Will we even fit through there?" John asked.

"Maybe us, but not Heft. He will have to stay here."

"Woah woah, wait. I am not staying here," Heft responded.

"Yeah. We can't leave him."

The ship shook again, and they saw purple through the holes that formed in the floor. They were at the Reef.

"Looks like we found a way out."

Uldiks angrily marched to the bridge to confront Uldren. He was furious. When he entered the bridge he stomped across the catwalk to the main platform, but Uldren wasn't there.

"Looking for me?" Uldren's voice appeared behind him.

"Oh. How could you tell?" he sarcastically responded before reaching down and pulling Uldren up by the neck.

Uldren held onto Uldiks' hand and tried to pry his fingers apart as he struggled to breath.

"What has gotten into you now?" Uldren rasped, "can't you see this is a victory?"

Uldiks looked around the bridge at all the dead Eliksni. Only four of them belonged to the House of Dusk.

"How do you call this a victory, when I am the only Eliksni left in this house!?" Uldiks slammed Uldren into the platform below, denting the metal, "we do everything for you. We die for you, I even took on your name. Yet you still don't care about our lives. You just sent your entire house to their deaths. And now only I remain."

Uldiks lifted Uldren up again, seeing the pain in his face. The pain that did not compare to the loss of his whole House. The bridge door opened again, and his barons stepped in.

"What are you doing Uldiks?" asked Diskar, raising his weapon.

Diskar was barely Eliksni, only his head and torso were. His limbs were made out of Vex metal, and his helmet resembled that of a Precursor Goblin. He was once a member of the House of Hunters. A victim of an experiment to implement themselves with Vex technology.

"I am giving our Prince here what he deserves," Uldiks said.

The barons looked around the bridge at all the dead Dregs.

"Are we the only Eliksni left?" asked Levik.

Levik wore the armour of a Vandal, but the helmet of a Dreg. He was the same size as Uldiks.

Uldiks simply nodded.

Uldren looked up, straight into Uldiks' eyes and smiled. Uldiks suddenly felt fear, and the ship shook. Uldiks felt a sharp pain in his chest as the sound of a projectile weapon sounded from behind him. He dropped Uldren and clutched the wound.

He looked behind him and saw an Awoken fighter hovering in front of the destroyed bridge window. When he looked forward again Uldren was gone. The Ketch hurtled toward the plains of the Tangled Shore.

RIAN'S SHIP

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

As the three people jumped out the hole in the bottom of the Ketch, they appeared in the transmat room of Rian's ship.

"How did we get here?" John asked, panting.

"Someone is flying the ship," Gariks replied.

John exited the transmat room and looked out into the cockpit. Hegiks was floating where the pilot's seat was supposed to be, and he was glowing purple.

"Looks like our new friend doesn't hate us," said John.

The Servitor turned around and said something.

"Rian is unconscious," Gariks translated, "she needs her Ghost."

"That might be an issue," John replied, watching the Ketch they just jumped out of crash into the Tangled Shore.

John looked back at Heft, whose eyes were blue instead of their usual red.

"Heft?" he asked.

"I don't think Misraaks was on the ship," he said, his eyes going back to red.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw something fall off the Ketch. It was a Captain."

John thought about it, and nodded. He saw something fall off the Ketch too, but he couldn't tell what it was.

"We should go back then," John finalized.

He pulled the pilot's seat up and sat down, taking control of the ship. He brought it back around and jumped to Earth, almost like nothing had ever happened.

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

The ship dropped, and scanned the area; looking for life within the trees. The scanner suddenly picked up a large gathering of life forms, so they went there. As they materialized they saw a ring of Eliksni.

Only a few of them turned around, but they raised their weapons. The Guardians put their hands up, and beckoned Gariks forward. He took off his helmet and spoke to the Eliksni.

"Misraaks is dying, this way," Gariks said after putting his helmet back on. He beckoned the Guardians forward.

The Dusk Eliksni parted for Gariks and the Guardians, and they saw an almost motionless Captain that was breathing heavily. A Vandal spoke to Gariks.

"Needs Servitor, House Crows killed them all," Gariks translated.

John sent a message to the ship to bring down Hegiks. Hopefully Rian didn't need him anymore for now.

Misraaks' vision was hazy, but he could still see. He couldn't move his body, and simply breathing hurt. As his vision began to clear he saw Guardians standing over him. Was this it? Was this his end?

But the Guardians parted, and a Servitor moved toward him.

"I am here. Live," it said.

A purple glow began to surround Misraaks, the feeling in his limbs came back and breathing no longer hurt. He sat up, speechless at the Guardians. Why had they saved him? There was an Eliksni with them.

The Eliksni had the colours of both Dusk and Crows on its armour, maybe it was part of one but defected to the other? Or they defected to the Guardian's side.

"Who are you, why are there lightbearers here?" Misraaks asked the Eliksni.

He took off his helmet to speak in his native tongue.

"We need your help," he said.

"With what?"

One of those little drone things that Guardians carry appeared next to him, and he pointed to it. Misraaks was told that one was found in the foundry, but he didn't take it for his own. He had no idea who took it, or if it was still there.

"I was told of one," he explained, "but did not take it. I do not know where it is."

The Eliksni nodded, and held his hands out. Misraaks took them and stood up.

"House Dusk," he addressed the group of Eliksni around him, "we will help these lightbearers, but only if they return the favour."


	14. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

THE TANGLED SHORE

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

Uldren appeared on a large chunk of rock, he could barely see through the haze of purple fog.

"Where am I now?" he asked.

"The site of a battle, not long ago fought," a deep voice responded.

He walked forward, and looked down. The ground was littered with dead Eliksni. All but one, crawling across the ground breathing heavily. He walked towards it, and it started crawling faster before its arms gave out.

"You," it turned around and said, "Awoken filth!"

"Ssh ssh ssh," Uldren responded, putting his finger up to his lips. But the Eliksni didn't listen.

"You took everything from me," the dying Eliksni said, "killed my friends, my barons. Killed me."

Uldren looked at him, there were multiple impacts on his skin, and a large hole on his chest.

"Riven," Uldren called.

"What is your wish, o father mine," the Ahamkara's deep voice returned.

"This Eliksni. I wish to save him and his friends."

"Then with your power, I bind the darkness, prepare for a world of pain."

Uldren's vision clouded, turning black. He slowly felt his feet raising off the ground, and the darkness surrounded him. His whole body was covered in darkness, and he couldn't even see the purple haze of the Reef.

He felt a pain in his chest, and looked down. His chest was bursting open, and the darkness was spewing out, fusing with a blue gas that began surrounding him. He screamed, louder than ever before.

He slammed his eyelids shut. His arms were being held up to his sides, so he couldn't hold onto his chest. After a minute it was all over. Uldren dropped to the ground, panting. He felt his chest, and looked at his body. He was back to normal.

"What did you do?" Uldren asked, but it wasn't Riven who responded.

"No. What did _you _do," said another voice.

Uldren looked up to see the once mortally wounded Eliksni standing before him. The impacts and holes that once riddled his body were covered in fleshy growths, a lighter colour than that of Eliksni skin.

Around the two, the dead Eliksni began to rise; the fleshy growths covering their wounds as well.

"You, you saved me," the Eliksni said, "I did not know of Awoken kindness."

"What is your name?" Uldren asked as he stood back up.

"I am Fikrul," he said, kneeling in front of Uldren, "and these are my barons."

Other, taller, Eliksni formed a line behind Fikrul. One of them wore a hood, one had some types of blades coming out of its back, another wore parts of armour from every species but the Eliksni. They didn't look like much, but looks could be deceiving.

"My name is Uldren," Uldren responded, "now, are you interested in some work?"

"Yes Father," Fikrul responded.

VESTIAN OUTPOST

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

Seja walked up to Petra's post once more, as she had another mission for her. However, as Seja saw Petra, she looked very concerned.

"What's wrong?" Seja asked.

"We received a distress signal," Petra said, her voice sharing the same worry that her face showed, "from a group of Fallen rebels known as the Mad Queenbreakers, Kingmakers for short.

"They hate Awoken, they would never send us a distress signal unless it were a trap. And according to recent scout reports, this is not a trap. Something has them running scared, and if it's enough to scare the Kingmakers then it's enough to scare me too.

"I was able to set up a meeting with one of their leaders, his name is Corvaks, and he needs an Awoken with him right now. I called you because you are both eager and an extraordinary fighter."

"I'll go," she said, "I'll see what is wrong with the Kingmakers, and make sure it doesn't hurt us."

"Good, and if things go south give me a call."

THE TANGLED SHORE

THE REEF, ASTEROID BELT

Seja materialized outside a cave. There were no guards at the entrance. Maybe it was a trap? But when she looked up she saw the top half of a Dreg's helmet for a split second, and then she went inside.

"Hello?" she called.

Whispering followed her question, and then she heard the voice of an Eliksni.

"Be quiet!" it called, before a blue Captain emerged from the shadows.

The Captain wore the colours of the House of Wolves.

"Corvaks?" she asked.

"Correct," the Captain responded, "I didn't think Petra would send anyone after the things we did to your people."

They heard scuffling in the rocks, and Corvaks pushed her into cover.

"What is going on?" Seja whispered.

"We are being attacked by some new group of Eliksni," Corvaks responded, "they just get back up every time we kill them, each time more deformed."

Seja slid her sidearm out of her holster, and stared around the corner. From the cave entrance she could see shadows moving around, but they didn't advance toward Seja and the Eliksni.

"They forced us into this cave," Corvaks continued, "we didn't think they would find us here."

"So you're fighting undead Fallen?"

"Yes, but unlike the zombies that the humans talk about so much, these are intelligent. They can hold guns, coordinate, and even speak to each other."

The shadows then began to advance. From the corner she saw her first target. Something that looked like it used to be a Dreg, it was covered in black rags, but had no body armour. Its helmet was some sort of yellow colour, and it covered its eyes.

It sniffed around, and then shouted. The Kingmakers then all sprang out from their covers and sprayed the creature with shock rounds. More of those undead Eliksni followed, they were carrying spiked clubs and were sprinting forward.

Seja turned from her cover and shot two in the head. The Dregs that were standing from their cover got tripped by one, and then the thing caved in their heads with its club. It turned toward Seja and screamed, running towards her.

Without even blinking she hurled a throwing knife at its head, killing it instantly. The Ether that sprayed out of its neck wasn't right however, it had some sort of blue tinge to it, and it seemed more like a liquid than a gas.

Corvaks fired his shrapnel launcher into the group of undead Eliksni, dropping them, and setting the surrounding enemies on fire.

"We need to pull back!" Corvaks yelled.

The remaining Kingmakers formed up around Corvaks, still shooting at the undead Eliksni. Then she saw with her own eyes, one of the dead Kingmaker Dregs stood back up, surrounded by the dark blue Ether.

It grabbed a club from one of the fallen undead Eliksni and charged forward. What was doing this to them?

The Kingmakers, along with Seja, backed through a tunnel that led them to a room with a parked Skiff. There were multiple entrances to the room, and the undead Eliksni began pouring through.

Seja holstered her sidearm, and pulled her scout rifle from her back. She grabbed one of the Eliksni's shock grenades from a crate, and hurled it into the sea of enemies. About ten undead Eliksni flew into the air from the explosion, and landed knocking over their comrades.

There were ledges above the entrances to the room, and she saw a bunch of blue Ether forming. It turned to light blue, and disappeared; leaving another undead Eliksni behind. This one had a taller helmet, and it was holding what looked like a crossbow.

The creature charged the crossbow, and it fired a purple bolt into Corvaks' skull. Corvaks toppled over, and Seja was left with four Dregs and a Vandal. Seja fired at the undead Eliksni's head, and it fell over into the crowd.

Next to her, blue Ether surrounded Corvaks' once dead body, and he stood back up. He tried to strike Seja in the head. _How is he alive without his head? _Seja dodged his arm, and fired at his chest. He no longer had a head, which made it harder to kill him.

"Not going to lie, I'm not enjoying this," Green said to her.

"Neither am I," Seja responded, shoving her knife into Corvaks' chest.

Corvaks fell over again, but she knew he wasn't dead this time. She teleported into the Skiff as the undead Eliksni climbed up the platform, and beat up the last of the Kingmakers. The Skiff lifted up, and Seja fired shock mines from the side into the crowd.

She jumped the Skiff away, leaving the whole mess of undead Eliksni behind her. She was breathing heavily and contacted Petra.

"Corvaks is gone, all the Kingmakers are dead," she reported.

"What happened?" Petra asked, her voice full of concern.

"Oh you're not going to believe this."

Uldren entered the Kingmaker's cave and passed the hordes of no-longer-Eliksni, which Fikrul called the Scorn.

"One made it away," Fikrul reported from behind him.

"Who was it?" Uldren asked.

"An Awoken. A dead thing."

Uldren thought about what Fikrul meant by 'dead thing'. An Awoken Guardian. The one he fought in the cave on Mars?

"And what of the Kingmakers," Uldren asked.

"Part of the Scorn now," Fikrul replied as the headless Corvaks entered the main cave.

"Then I see this only as a victory."

The once dead Scorn rose from the ground, this time with even more fleshy growths on their skin. Some of them became more deformed, and one of them that has died multiple times in this single battle, started producing glowing blue growths on his back.

Fikrul had a great power, but it still had its limitations.

"Where shall we go now Father?" Fikrul asked, kneeling once more.

"Spread out around the Tangled Shore," Uldren replied, "there is an Eliksni crime lord that I believe it would be beneficial for you to kill."

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK

FOUNDRIES OF DUSK, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

John went around the group of Dusk Eliksni, using Gariks to interrogate them or search them for Rian's Ghost. Still no luck. At this point their only option was to search the ruins of the foundry itself.

Misraaks stared at them with an unknown emotion in his eyes. Knowing the Eliksni, he probably wanted to be payed for allowing the Guardians to search his soldiers.

Gariks walked back to Misraaks. John didn't know what they were saying, but there was a lot of head shaking, and after a while Misaaks pointed at the burning foundry. Then Gariks nodded, put his helmet on, and walked back to John.

"Rian's Ghost may still be at foundry," Gariks said.

"Looks like we'll have to go there then," John responded.

"Oh, and he's expecting pay."

The Guardians arrived at the foundry about an hour later, they had to walk. They were being escorted by two Marauders; Misraaks was cautious, but what was he cautious about? Heft deployed Console to search the area.

"Over here!" he heard Console shout. The group of Guardians and Eliksni sprinted to the remains of the Servitor building, even more destroyed than before.

They climbed over the rubble, and saw a faint blue light in the corner of the building. John ran toward the light, and saw the charred remains of what had once been a Ghost. He scooped it into his hands.

The Ghost's eye was still glowing, she was alive! He picked up the eye with two of his fingers and adjusted it in his hand.

"John?" she asked, her voice was muffled and cutting out. She wasn't going to live for much longer.

"Don't worry, we've got you," he said, closing his palm over the eye, and sprinting out of the building, "I've found her!"

Gariks and Heft huddled close by John.

"We need to go," he said quickly.

Gariks took off his helmet to talk to the Marauders. John saw his face was disappointed as he turned back and put his helmet back on.

"They won't allow us to bring in our ship," he said.

"But Rian's Ghost is going to die, we need to do something!" John yelled back.

Gariks thought about it for a few seconds and said, "then there is only one thing that we can do."

Gariks turned towards the Marauders, and unsheathed his shock blades. Before they could raise their weapons, Gariks sliced their heads clean off. John was surprised that Gariks was willing to not only kill his own people, but kill people that were helping him. _Mental note, don't mess with Gariks._

John called the ship in, and it swooped down from the clouds. It stopped above the three and they teleported inside. John quickly sprinted to the cargo hold, and located the crate of motes. He tore the cover of the crate off, and reached inside to grab a mote. Rian, who was sleeping before, woke up and saw John.

"What's going on?" she asked quietly while watching his frantic movements.

"I found your Ghost," he said without turning around, "if she doesn't get this energy, she's dead."

He found a mote, and clasped his hand around it. He pulled the Ghost's eye and held it in his other hand as he shattered the mote. Light sprayed from the mote, and flowed into the Ghost's eye.

The eye raised up, and the light in her eye was bright once more. Without the shell however, the eye couldn't move on its own. He tossed it to Rian, and she caught it.

"Thanks," she said.

John nodded without saying anything, and set a course for the farm.


	15. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

THE FARM

THE FARM, EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE

As Rian's ship descended toward the farm, John could see huge clusters of Guardians gathered around the hangar barn.

"Alright, what the hell did we miss?" John asked out loud.

"Oh are they having a party without us?" Heft joked, though with anger in his voice.

"What the hell is with you and parties?"

"I don't know," he smiled.

The ship descended enough for the them to exit. John and Heft decided to leave Rian with Gariks and Hegiks.

They arrived, but the massive crowd was weirdly quiet. For a lot of people, they expected it to be loud.

"Hey! What's going on?" John yelled to the first Guardian he came up to.

"Some Guardian came back with Cayde," he replied, he was a hunter, "then they just ran off and told us they were going to find Ikora."

John nodded, thinking about what would happen when the Vanguard reunited. With the three greatest minds out of all the Guardians together, maybe they could retake the city.

"With the Vanguard together we could retake the city," John voiced his thoughts.

"It still won't be easy without our light," the hunter responded.

"Well, we can't just sit by and do nothing."

"We'll lose a lot of Guardians, but you're right. We need every Guardian on this; every Warlock, every Hunter, every Titan."

John nodded approvingly, and walked into the crowd. He didn't know where Heft went, probably to speak to his other Titan friends. Like every Warlock, John admired Ikora; he even thought she was the smartest of all the Vanguard. They couldn't retake the city without her.

John and Heft entered the ship with supplies, and saw Rian in the cockpit of the ship.

"You're up?" John asked in surprise.

"I have my Ghost now," she said, "of course I'm up."

She sounded as good as new, her body motions smooth, as if she had never been shot at in her life. Her armour was still blackened however, and there was no fixing that. At least for now.

"So what did I miss?" she asked.

"Zavala and Cayde are at the farm," John replied, "a Guardian is going to get Ikora. Once they're united, they're going to plan an assault on the city. And I intend to be a part of that assault."

"Me too," she said, smiling, "but I don't think I'm up to it just yet. I still need a shell for my Ghost; all she can do is heal me without one, and that isn't enough."

"Where do you expect we'll find a shell for her?"

"Hmm. I think I know."

SPIDER'S PALACE

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

The ship flew underneath a massive chunk of rock tied to the Tangled Shore. As it reached the edge of the rock, it turned up and turned around. In front of them then was a large palace, seemed to be build out of the same metal the Eliksni use in their ketches.

"Definitely not a safe place," Gariks said, "but a useful one."

"What is this place?" Heft asked Gariks.

"Spider's palace."

"Yeah, can we turn back? I don't like spiders."

No one seemed to care about Heft's joke, he just took their reactions as he wasn't funny. The only one who reacted was Gariks, who simply shook is head as if he thought Heft was serious.

As they got closer to the palace, a pair of Skiffs appeared next to the ship, and escorted it.

"Don't shoot the Skiffs," Rian warned John, who was flying the ship.

"Wasn't planning on it."

The ship approached, and stopped above a tan hexagonal landing pad made out of scrapped metal. Everyone on the ship, save for Hegiks, materialized underneath the ship. In front of the landing pad was a long catwalk to the entrance of the palace. Coming towards them across the catwalk was a pair of Eliksni that had a large number of spikes protruding from their backs.

Once the two Eliksni got close enough the speak they stopped moving. They set the bottoms of their staffs on the floor, letting out a metallic clang.

"Guardians, or Drifters," one of the Eliksni said, motioning to Gariks when he said Drifters, "whoever you are, why are you here?"

John stepped back and let Rian walk up.

"We have come to speak to the Spider," she said confidently, though John couldn't see through her helmet to read her expression.

"And what makes you think the Spider will see you?" the Eliksni guard said in a very threatening voice.

Rian motioned for her companions to move away so they couldn't hear what she was going to say to the guards. But whatever she did say to them, they backed away from Rian and held the staffs away from her.

She beckoned the three forward again, and they stood behind her. After the guards had a long chat with an unknown person in Eliksni, they parted.

"It seems that the Spider would like to speak with you," one of the guards said as they approached her.

Rian gave a respectful nod, and led her group into the palace with the Guards escorting them.

Rian had never personally met the Spider, but she had heard Variks talk about him sometimes. All she knew was that he was a powerful crime lord. One you would never mess with in any way. He knew who she was though, and that was their key to talking to him.

As they walked through the the doors they were greeted by the sounds of hundreds, maybe thousands, of people talking. She looked around and saw multiple tables, all full with people chatting away.

She saw mostly Awoken and Eliksni, but she saw about two humans, and even a Cabal in a corner of the room. When the Guardians entered, the Awoken and Eliksni stopped talking to each other, and stared at the newcomers.

"I get the feeling we aren't welcome here," she heard John whisper.

"We're Guardians," she whispered back, "of course we're not welcome here."

"Whether or not they like you," one of the guards overheard them, "they still know the rule. The only rule. No fighting."

"That's it?" John asked in disbelief, "I thought it would be like, don't mess with the Spider or something."

The guard simply shook his head as he continued.

They were brought to an even larger room, this time full of game tables. This room looked like a casino of sorts. There were Eliksni and Awoken playing games together, like whatever kind of poker aliens play.

No one really stood out in the room except for one Eliksni. Its skin was a pale tan kind of colour, unlike the usual dark gray of other Eliksni. It wore a hood, and had multiple strips of dark brown cloth wrapping around its upper arms and elbows. It had armour covering its torso, pelvis, and legs that was a sickly dark yellow.

"Who the heck is that?" Rian whispered to a guard, motioning toward the weird Eliksni.

"Her name is Araskes," he responded, "no one has ever beaten her at any of the games here. Some say she is a cheater, or a trickster. But honestly, we don't care."

_Araskes. _Rian thought.

"Why does she…" Rian trailed off thinking of what to say, "look like that?"

"No idea. I thought it was a disease or something, but scans don't say anything about her. In fact, they say she's dead."

"How can that be?"

The guard simply shook is head, not knowing what to say. The exited the large room, and in front of them was an elevator. The guards led the four of them onto the elevator, and it ascended.

As the elevator ascended they saw the rings of debris near the tangled shore through a window in front of them. The sky was dark purple with some spots of blue, though normally the sky on the Reef was a lighter purple-pink colour. She decided not to think about it.

The elevator stopped abruptly, causing Rian and her Guardians to stumble in their place. The guards stood motionless. In front of them looked like a huge throne room, Rian could barely see the ceiling.

At the other end of the room sat a large Eliksni, sitting upon his throne. His laugh boomed across the room.

"But who is this?" the Eliksni said after they stepped off the elevator platform, "more Guardians needing my help?"

The guards stopped and allowed the four to continue.

"I assume you're the Spider," Rian asked, stopping before the steps to the Eliksni's throne.

"And I assume you're Azzir?" the Spider asked.

Rian stepped back, and John looked at her. She waved him off in a motion that she will talk about it later.

"Yes," she said confidently.

The Spider pulled a dead Ghost from somewhere behind him, and turned the pieces of the shell with his bottom hands.

"Then we are already acquainted," he said, not looking up from the Ghost in his hands, "Who might these fine gentlemen be?"

"From the left, Heft, Gariks, and John."

"Hmph. Well I suppose you didn't come all this way to introduce yourselves. What brings you here?"

Rian held out her hand, and her Ghost appeared. The tiny black ball rested in her palm, unmoving.

"My Ghost needs a shell," she said, holding the Ghost up for Spider to see, "it was destroyed a while back."

"Oh, I see," he said, leaning back in his chair.

He began to say something in Eliksni to his guards. One of them nodded, and walked away to the elevator.

"Now, why don't you tell me about your Gariks friend."

THE HOLLOWED LAIR

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

"Listen my friends, my barons," Uldren began, "I have done some digging, and discovered that the Guardians are planning to retake their city."

Uldren's eight Scorn barons stood in front of him, Fikrul bowing before his father.

"The Guardians do not have their light," he continued, "when they attack the city, there will be chaos. I want you to join in on that chaos and take down as many Guardians as you can. I know you can do it, and I know you will do it."

"A legion of Guardians shall be slain by our hands," Fikrul said, standing up and grabbing his staff.

The Scorn barons exited the large circular room in their new base. They had to wait on Earth for the right time to strike, once the Guardians began their assault on the now Cabal controlled city.

The Scorn were able to teleport, but only across short distances. They needed a mode of transport first, and their best bet was an Eliksni ship. A Skiff. And they knew just where to find one.

"What will we do Fikrul?" his right hand, Elykris, asked.

"We are going to steal a Skiff," Fikrul responded, "our Scorn are going to swarm the Spider's palace. Araskes is already there."

"Very good, I will signal her."

SPIDER'S PALACE

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

"We found him at the shard of the Traveler in the EDZ," said Rian.

"And you didn't kill him?" Spider asked.

"If I killed him he wouldn't be here. These two however almost killed him," she pointed to John and Heft.

"I admire your care for the Eliksni, you see we aren't all bad. We're not like the Cabal or Hive, or definitely not the Vex. But at least the Cabal even have some sense."

Spider's guard returned up the elevator, holding a ghost in one of his lower hands. It was rusty and scratched, but it looked like it would work. As he slowly approached, Spider sat up in his seat.

"I hope it isn't too far gone," the guard said.

"It doesn't matter how it looks," Rian replied, "it'll still work."

Rian took the Ghost's shell and put it on her belt.

"Well, you don't happen to have any glimmer do you?" Spider asked.

"I just might have some glimmer that I can spare," Rian said, crossing her arms.

Before Rian could give Spider anything, one of his Servitors appeared next to him. Like his guards, the Servitor had a large number of long spikes coming from plates attached to the front, and sticking out in the back.

It starting speaking to Spider in Eliksni. Rian looked at Gariks to translate the Servitor's words.

"He detects Ether surges all around the palace," Gariks said, "but there is something wrong with it."

Spider suddenly turned away from the Servitor and beckoned his guards forward. Rian and her crew stepped back so they didn't intrude on anything. The guards stepped away from the Spider, and disappeared into blue light.

"If you don't mind me asking," Rian started, "what's going on?"

"Probably intruders," Spider responded, "but my guards are more than capable of handling a few intruders. Unless they're Guardians. But that is unlikely. I suggest you wait here until the matter is resolved."

Skevris was one of the Spider's main guards, right next to Avrok and Arrha. Avrok and Arrha were away however, on some mission that Spider wouldn't tell him about. All he had with him was Kevak.

Skevris and Kevak walked along the catwalk to the landing pad, along the way things started to feel weird. Araskes wasn't at her usual game table, and she never leaves early. Once they stepped out side they saw faint blue lines of energy circling the palace every now and then.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Kevak said.

Skevris didn't really like Kevak, but he had a bad feeling as well.

"Just keep calm and your weapon ready," Skevris said.

Kevak seemed to react to his words in surprise, Skevris never said anything reassuring to him.

They reached the end of the catwalk, just outside the landing pad. They stopped, stowed their staffs, and grabbed their shrapnel launchers from their sides. Their launchers were modified to collapse into a more mobile form at the cost of some damage, but they were still effective weapons.

The deep blue lines they saw early formed a circle at the center of the landing pad, and disappeared; leaving perfect circle of blue on the landing pad.

Skevris and Kevak looked at each other, confused. A smaller circle formed in the centre of the large circle, and a staff appeared in the middle. Blue-white energy formed and produced a loud whirring noise that grew louder with each second.

The two guard's vision filled with white, and in front of them was an Eliksni, about four times their size. The Eliksni grabbed the staff from the air and laughed. Unlike most Eliksni laughs, he sounded like he was just whispering extremely loud.

Before Skevris could do anything, a huge beam of energy shout out of the staff and impacted Kevak in the chest, causing him to fly a few metres back. Skevris fired his shrapnel launcher into the Eliksni's chest, but he didn't even flinch.

"Oh Reksis," the Eliksni said, "this one is all yours."

More energy appeared behind his opponent and a another large Eliksni appeared. He assumed this one was Reksis. He was big, but not as big as the other one. His lower arms were docked, and he held a large cauldron covered in spikes.

Skevris fired as many bursts from his shrapnel launcher as he could into Reksis, but he seemed to not notice the impacts. Reksis' cauldron lit on fire as he approached.

Skevris tried to turn and run, but it was too late. The cauldron slammed into the side of Skevris, causing him to fly off of the landing pad. He couldn't see, or move at all, but he wasn't dead. At least not yet.

More, smaller Eliksni started to show up the same way Reksis and the other big one did. He noticed that they all looked similar to Araskes, with pale skin and crude yellow armour. But these ones had fleshy growths covering parts of their bodies.

_Maybe Araskes is one of these, things. Just undercover. _Skevris thought. He heard the sounds of battle inside the palace, but he still couldn't move. Just a few more minutes and he would be dead.

After Rian got her Ghost back into its shell, they heard an explosion underneath them.

"Uh Spider?" Rian asked.

The Spider was rapidly tapping buttons on the arm rests of his throne; probably trying to communicate with his guards.

"Skevris and Kevak aren't responding," he said, "if something beat them, then the safety of this palace is in jeopardy."

"We can help Spider, let us down there."

"Very well, go take the elevator. Make sure they don't get to me."

Rian nodded, and led her crew to the elevator at the back of the room. They took it back down to the ground level.

The door to the elevator room was shut, but they could hear what was going on in the game room like they were there.

"Gariks, can you get this open?" Rian asked.

"Give me a few seconds," Gariks said, running up to a panel next to the door.

And sure enough, the door opened after a few seconds. As the door slowly opened an Eliksni climbed between the gap in the middle of the door before it even opened all the way. It looked strange, like Araskes from earlier.

It dropped on the ground, but got back up and ran straight up to Rian with a spiked club in its hands. Rian grabbed her rifle from her back and blew its head off before it could hit her. As the door opened the four could see what was happening.

There were hordes of disgusting looking Eliksni swarming around the room, battling the Awoken and other Eliksni in the room. Spider's guards were cutting the swarms down, but they fell eventually.

"Whatever these things are," Heft started, "they look really fun to kill."

"Then let's do just that," Rian replied.

Heft pumped his shotgun and ran into the hordes, knocking them over as he ran into them. Gariks unsheathed his shock swords and ran in after Heft. Rian and John each loaded their rifles and took the Eliksni out from a distance.

Heft slid under an Eliksni and shot it in the back with his shotgun, and kicked the Eliksni in front of him over. Gariks was behind him, beheading all the Eliksni with his swords. He stabbed two in the chest, and threw them into another group, causing them to fall over.

These Eliksni fought like they didn't even have brains, like they were undead. Rian fired her pulse rifle into the groups, taking out three of them with each burst. Heft and Gariks wanted to be in the middle of the fight, but Rian and John made sure they weren't going to get up to Spider.

In front of Rian, the first Eliksni she killed started to twitch. Then it stood up. It didn't even have a head, but it turned toward Rian and grabbed her head.

"Oh god get it off!" she screamed, dropping her pulse rifle.

"Damnit," John groaned, using his free hand to grab the undead Eliksni by its torso. He pulled it off of Rian and fired five shots into its chest.

"Sorry," Rian laughed, picking her rifle back up.

Rian's Ghost began to buzz.

"Azzir," Rian heard Spider's voice over the fighting, "I have a feeling my position is compromised."

"But no one got to the elevator," she retorted.

"They might have found another way up, get your people up here."

Gariks and Heft were back to back. Heft had his shotgun, and Gariks with a shrapnel launcher. The shots from the shrapnel launcher disintegrated the Eliksni that were hit. Heft shot the Eliksni in the head, making some corrupted form of Ether fly out of their necks.

"Heft, Gariks, we need you over here now," Rian used her Ghost to call Heft.

"But I like killing these things," Heft protested.

Heft was turning fast, not letting any Eliksni close enough to hit him. Gariks now had shock pistols in his hands, shooting to his sides. The Eliksni that Heft shot earlier began to get up and he flinched.

"Uh, yeah we're coming," Heft said. He softly elbowed Gariks in the back, and he pointed towards John and Rian when he turned around.

Once the crew was back together they noticed that these undead Eliksni weren't after them. There was something else in Spider's palace that they wanted.

The four backed onto the elevator and it brought them up the Spider's throne room. The room was empty except for Spider sitting in his throne. He had a pistol in one of his hands, she hadn't expected him to have to do anything himself.

"Where are your guards?" Rian asked, running up to Spider with her crew behind her.

"Either on the ground floor, or dead," he responded, "there are none up here."

She heard a metallic clang at the back of the room and drew her rifle. There was definitely someone there.

"Where are they? I can't see them," Spider said.

"They're behind you, I don't know how they got in," Rian answered.

Gariks and Heft stood on one side of his throne while Rian and John stood on the other side. Corrupted Ether began to build up on the other side of the room, making a loud noise. Once the Ether disappeared, Araskes stood there.

"I knew there was something off about her," John said.

"Oh, lightbearers!" Araskes laughed, "Fikrul didn't plan for this!"

She disappeared, and more corrupted Ether formed on the sides of the room, releasing two squads of four undead Eliksni. These ones were different though; they didn't seem as rabid and degraded, and they held guns.

Void energy formed at the front of their weapons and they all fired at the same time. Heft got hit three times, John and Rian each got hit once, and the other shots missed. Everyone shrugged off the pain as their Ghosts healed them.

Rian fired a burst from her rifle taking down two of the enemy riflemen. Gariks took out three with his pistols, and Heft got shot again. John took out the last three using his slug rifle.

"So what is going on?" Spider yelled as the small skirmish ended.

"Undead Fallen," Rian responded.

"Undead… what? How does that make any sense?"

John deployed Moira to scan the enemies on the floor, and the dark Ether that had burst from their heads.

"Corrupted Ether," Moira explained, "someone fused Ether with the Darkness and is using it to reanimate Eliksni."

"I still don't understand," Spider began, but before he finished their opponents stood back up.

They didn't pick their rifles back up. They ran up to the Guardians, but they didn't come close before they were dropped. The Eliksni with their heads missing stood back up, this time their chests a faint blue glow.

"This is getting weird," John said, shooting one in the chest.

It's chest exploded, killing the other ones around it and causing them to explode as well.

"Now where did that Araskes run off to?" Rian asked.

As if she heard her name called, she appeared by the elevator in the front of the room, showering the place with corrupted Ether.

"Oh! Oh please no!" Spider panicked, wrestling to get out of his seat while firing his pistol at Araskes.

Araskes disappeared again as the first shot hit her. She reappeared at the back of the room.

"What's with Fallen and teleporting all the time?" Heft yelled, unslinging the Two-Tailed Fox from his back.

Araskes fired what looked like a modified shrapnel launcher. It fired void rounds instead of solar, in it was longer ranged. The first shot hit John in the stomach, burning through his armour and causing him to double over.

Araskes laughed and teleported a few metres to her left.

"Big mistake!" Heft yelled, firing the rocket launcher.

Surprise filled Araskes' face as she couldn't teleport.

"Oh shi-!" the two rockets impacted Araskes in the chest, only making her fall backwards.

"Heh heh, who's laughing now," Heft taunted.

Araskes quickly stood back up, lightning fast, and smiled. She fired her rifle multiple times, and the rounds seared two large holes through Heft's chassis. She didn't miss a shot

Heft simply looked down, and back up. Araskes was already gone.

"Huh, well that ain't good," he said before he fell forward.

"Heft!" John yelled, running up to Heft, and turning him onto his back, "Console! Do something!"

Console appeared over Heft and scanned the holes. When he finished scanning he shook his shell.

"I can't do anything," Console said, "he's gone."

Rian thought she could even see sadness in Gariks' eyes as he stood over Heft's body. But then Gariks knelt and drew a small blade.

"No," the Eliksni said.

"What are you doing?" John asked.

"He is not gone, not yet," he said, slowly sliding the knife into the plating that covered the front of Heft's face.

He pulled off Heft's face plate and revealed the inner workings of the Exo. Wires crossed all over, and Gariks pulled them out of the way. Hiding behind the wires was a perfect cube, completely soft on all sides except for the bottom.

"I am familiar with your Exos," he began, "they are mechanical beings yes? Put cube in another mechanical being to preserve him while a new body is made."

"Oh, it's really that simple?" John asked.

"Yes. I am Eliksni, I know these things. "

"Yeah uh, about me going to die?" Spider's voice rang out.

Rian turned to see he was out of his throne. He stood next to the throne, hunched over as if he barely stands. She could tell he barely does.

"You're not going to die," Rian said, "we just need to get you out of here. You, your associates, and your Servitors."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Spider asked, pointing towards the elevator.

The Guardians went up first while Gariks helped Spider over to the elevator. Right when the two Eliksni made it, the elevator descended. The elevator made it down, and the door to the room was still open.

In the now completely ruined game room was a large Eliksni in Vandal armour, with Dregs scouring the ruins. Vandals and Captains behind him were hauling crates, presumably full of Ether and glimmer.

"Oh Rhetiks!" Spider called, "you just couldn't keep yourself from my possessions!"

"Oh don't go blaming me," the Vandal turned around, spreading out his arms, "blame the Scorn."

Rhetiks scanned Spider and his Guardian escort, and squinted his eyes when he saw John.

"Uh, do you two know each other," Rian whispered to John.

"Yeah, we met once right before the Cabal attacked the city," John whispered back.

"Ha ha! You!" Rhetiks called, pointing the John, "no spire for you to attack this time. And this time you won't be leaving alive!"

"Why are you just standing there do something!" Spider intruded, "they're taking all my Ether."

John stepped forward, hand resting on the handle of his slug rifle.

"I respect you man," John said, "but I can't let you take Spider's Ether."

At this Rhetiks grew visibly angry. Rheticks rested his hands on four pistols attached to his belt.

"Spider takes my possessions every day and no one bats an eye," Rhetiks retorted, "but when I am given a deal to steal his stuff you want to kill me? I don't think so."

Rhetiks drew his pistols before John could draw his slug rifle and fired all four of them at an insane speed. Rian and Gariks pushed Spider into cover, and John dived to the side while taking four shots to the stomach.

"I'm alright!" he yelled getting up.

Rian looked around the corner and saw that Rhetiks wasn't going to move. Then she looked at Heft's body on the elevator, and saw the huge purple rocket launcher on the ground.

"Hey Gariks, think you can distract him?" Rian asked.

It was a huge request, but he nodded confidently. Gariks stepped around the corner, but Rhetiks didn't shoot him.

"What's wrong Rhetiks?" Gariks taunted.

"I'm deciding whether or not to shoot you," Rhetiks said.

Gariks drew his shock swords lightning fast and dashed in between Rhetiks' legs, slashing the backs of his thighs.

"Oh you did it now!" He yelled, firing at Gariks, and causing all his other Eliksni friends to shoot him.

Gariks was too fast for them, and Rian slid over to Heft's body. She took the rocket launcher in her hands, and struggled a bit to lift it up. This thing was designed for Titans. Or maybe just for him.

She aimed at Rhetiks' back and fired, the two rockets caused him to fly forward about four metres. The force also knocked Rian back, and caused her to drop the launcher.

"Think you made him mad?" John asked.

"We'll see," Rian responded.

The two ran into the room and shot at the Dregs. They probably didn't want any part of this conflict, but they were still enemies.

Gariks jumped off a table and spun a full three-sixty degrees, cutting down four Dregs that surrounded him. John fired his slug rifle and took out the shields of a Captain, letting Rian shoot it in the head.

Rhetiks slowly got up from the floor, and picked up one of his pistols. He fired a burst at Gariks, who dodged it.

Gariks ran straight up to Rhetiks, and stuck his blades into his thighs. Rhetiks let out a loud, low pitched roar that shook the room. As John and Rian killed the Captains, Gariks climbed up Rhetiks' torso.

He pulled his swords out of Rhetiks' thighs and stuck them into his chest. Gariks then jumped off Rhetiks, took one of his shock pistols, and fired it through the slit in his helmet that enabled him to see.

Rhetiks' head exploded, showering the room with Ether, and his lifeless body fell over. Rian killed the last Captain, and made sure none of the Ether exited the Palace.

Spider limped out from his cover and looked around the room.

"My palace may be ruined," he began, "but you not only saved my life _and _my Ether, but you also killed Rhetiks. God I hated him so much. Useful your little Dreg friend is right huh?"

Gariks ran over to Spider and helped him out to the landing pad while Rian called their ship.

Two of Spider's Servitors appeared at the landing pad as they walked out.

"Contact Arrha and Avrok," Spider said to them as he walked past.

The Servitors made a noise and teleported away. The four of them, along with Heft's body, materialized into the ship. Gariks took Heft's body and brought it to the storage room with Hegiks.

"Oh you even have yourselves a Servitor!" Spider exclaimed.

Hegiks seemed to only notice Heft's body, and didn't even look at Spider.

"His name is Hegiks," Gariks explained, "using him to keep me alive."

"Where to?" Rian asked Spider as she sat down.

"Well I prefer to not die," Spider began, "but I think I should settle down near good old Azilis. He hates me, but if I pay him enough he'll leave me alone."

"Yeah uh, where is Azilis?"

"A little place Eliksni call Thieves Landing. I'll put the coordinates in."

Spider leaned forward and typed something in on the main console. Rian turned the ship toward their new destination, but something was off.

"Uh," she started, "from what I know about the Reef, this is underground."

"Yeah don't worry about that," Spider said, "I know a way down there."

The ship sped off, away from Spider's massive palace.


	16. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

THE WILDS

EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE, EARTH

The Skiff flew over the forests, in between mountains, and over large bodies of water. Pirrha and Araskes were tasked with finding the Guardian's settlement. With them was only a small compliment of Scorn, but enough to kill.

"We're never going to find them," Araskes complained, "why don't we just go back to the Shore?"

"Because if we do," Pirrha began, clearly annoyed, "then Uldren will cut off our heads and sell our Ether to Spider."

"Yeah right."

The Scorn's machinist, Elykris, had upgraded the Skiff with the ability to detect intelligent life, such as Guardians. Pirrha always kept two eyes on the scanner, and the other two where they were going.

Suddenly, the scanner started buzzing.

"Araskes, please check the scanner," Pirrha ordered, paying full attention to their position.

"Multiple blips, I count three," she examined, "about two kilometres ahead."

"Good, we shall set down far enough so they don't see us."

Pirrha turned the Skiff down towards the trees, just skimming over them. He found a clearing and set the Skiff down, careful not to make too much noise.

Pirrha and Araskes jumped out of the Skiff once it was set down, and Pirrha ordered one of their Scorn to watch the dropship. The Barons and their Scorn used their powers to teleport around.

Pirrha stopped when he heard noises, and saw three Guardians through the trees. He moved a slight bit closer until he could hear them talking.

"I swear I heard something moving around," one of them said. From what he could tell it was a male Titan.

"All you Titans are paranoid," said a female Warlock. She sounded old.

The third one didn't speak, but carefully looked around. It was a male Hunter.

Pirrha slowly unslung his crossbow from his back and charged it. When the Hunter stopped looking around he released the trigger; the shot from the crossbow cleanly seared through his enemy's skull.

"Crap!" the Titan yelled, diving for cover. The Warlock did the same.

"Where did that shot come from?" the Warlock yelled back.

Araskes seemed to know what Pirrha was thinking, and something hit the Titan in the back. Araskes had a modified shrapnel launcher, and shot the Titan.

"Kai!" the Warlock screamed, "please don't go!"

The titan stood up with holes in his armour and turned around. He started to spray with his rifle into the trees, but he didn't hit Araskes. She wasn't even there.

As the Titan was concentrating on shooting into the trees, Araskes teleported in front of the Warlock, and hit her in the side. She flew towards Pirrha, who stepped out of the trees and pinned her to the ground with his foot.

The warlock began struggling and shouting something, but Pirrha wasn't paying attention. Araskes smacked the rifle out of the Titan's hands and picked him up by the neck. She was twice his size, but she still struggled to hold him.

Not wanting the Titan to get word out through his Ghost, Pirrha quickly shot the Titan in the head with his crossbow.

"That was a pretty heavy Guardian," she laughed, walking towards Pirrha.

"Oh little lightbearer where is your Ghost?" Pirrha said to the Warlock under his foot.

"I ain't telling you anything!" she spat at him.

Pirrha lowered his crossbow, and picked her up by the neck with his lower hand. Araskes signaled the remaining Scorn to bring the Skiff to them. The Warlock struggled, but didn't say a word.

There was a flash of blue light over the trees, and a loud boom. The Skiff appeared above the two Barons, and they were transmatted inside. Pirrha threw her on the floor, and cast her weapons aside.

"Oh god," she gasped, looking at the undead Eliksni crowded in the back of the Skiff, "what the hell are you?"

Pirrha kicked her in the back, knocking the wind out of her.

"Only we ask questions here," he said menacingly.

"What the hell do you want?" she asked after catching her breath.

"I want to know where you lightbearers reside, and if you don't answer then I will make your life hell."

THIEVES LANDING

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

Rian's ship weaved through rocks, and got scratched multiple times, but she could see a light blue glow through the hole in front of the ship. The ship flew through the hole, and she slowed it down to a halt stop it from crashing into anything more.

"Thieves landing huh?" she said looking at all the huts and whatever other buildings there were.

"I hate this place," Spider said, "mostly because of Azilis though."

There looked like a lot of Eliksni, mostly House of Dusk and House of Hunters, but there were even a few Awoken. Rian, Gariks, and Spider exited the ship, leaving John and Hegiks to watch.

"Up there," Spider said, pointing up to a door on a large Eliksni structure at the back wall of the cave they were in.

Every single person there, Eliksni and Awoken alike, were staring at Spider. Some of them that Spider passed even bowed when he got close. All over the Shore people respected Spider. He was their only law.

Gariks helped Spider across the crowd and up to the door. When they went through it was empty, but as they continued through the halls they came up to a window. There were some Eliksni dancing, and there were Shanks floating around with drinks on their heads.

"Hey Azzir," Spider called the Rian before she could go talk to the bouncer, "maybe Gariks and I can wait out here while you and the other guy talk to Azilis? I prefer not to get killed by him."

"Right," Rian smiled.

Rian and John walked down a small set of stairs and approached what seemed to be a bouncer. The bouncer backed away slowly and raised his staff.

"Something wrong?" John asked.

"No Guardians here," the bouncer growled, "leave."

"Uh, did we do something wrong?" Rian asked.

"Guardians killed last guard. Leave."

"Maybe we can watch Spider and Gariks can go in?" Rian asked John once they were away from the bouncer.

"Worth a try," John responded.

The two walked back to Spider and Gariks, who were both standing in a corner.

"Hey Gariks, Spider," John began, "the bouncer isn't going to let any Guardians in, something about them killing the last bouncer. But anyways, we thought we could watch you while Gariks goes in."

"Doesn't sound so bad to me," Spider said, he then turned to Gariks "what do you think little buddy?"

"We are the same species," Gariks said, "it will work. I know it will. But if it comes to a fight I hope you will back me up."

Rian and John both nodded.

"Then we are agreed," Spider said, "go on Gariks, make me proud!"

Gariks nodded and walked up to the bouncer. After a short minute they saw Gariks through the windows. He looked up at them and gave them the Eliksni equivalent of a thumbs up.

EMPTY TANK

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

Gariks weaved through crowds of Eliksni, looking for someone to talk to. He had no idea how to find Azilis, so he had to find someone who did. He thought about the bartender and the DJ. _Bartenders always have a good ear to the ground._

Gariks walked past more crowds of chatting Eliksni and he walked up to the counter and beckoned the bartender forward.

"I'll be right with you," said the bartender before pouring a glass of some unknown liquid. At least to Gariks it was unknown.

The Bartender slid the glass to a helmetless Dusk Vandal who took it and downed it in one gulp. The Vandal laughed and left the bar with two Dregs.

"What can I get 'ya?" the bartender asked, his lower arms leaning on the counter while he polished a glass with this upper arms.

"Listen," Gariks started, "I'm not here for a drink. I need to talk to Azilis, important business."

"Oh, well I'm not the person to talk to," the bartender said. He lifted up his lower left hand and pointed toward a Captain leaning on a wall, "talk to Cervis. He'll probably let you in if you pay him enough."

"Ah, appreciate it."

"No problem friend."

Gariks left the counter while the bartender continued to serve drinks to the thirsty Eliksni. Gariks walked over to the Captain that was leaning on the wall, and leaned next to him without looking at him.

"I hear you can get me to Azilis," Gariks said, watching the Eliksni dance.

"Depends on if you're payin'," Cervis said without looking at Gariks, "or if you have a meeting with Azilis and he didn't tell me."

"You just let random people go and talk to Azilis if they give you a bunch of glimmer?"

"There is only three people in the Shore that can afford the amount I ask."

"Huh. Would it make any difference if I was an associate of a uh… powerful person in the Shore?"

"Well if that person is who I think it is then yeah. Though Azilis and him hate each other, Azilis has to listen to him. He's the Shore's only law."

Gariks nodded and stopped leaning on the wall. He rested his lower hands on his belt, but still didn't turn towards Cervis.

"I'm guessing you require proof that I'm an associate of Spider?" Gariks asked.

"Well, considering you're not covered in spikes, yes," Cervis replied.

Gariks pulled a communicator out of his pocket and contacted Spider. Only Gariks could hear his raspy voice over the music.

"I need your confirmation that I'm an associate of yours," Gariks said into the communicator.

"For what?" Spider said.

"For meeting Azilis without killing everyone in this room."

"Ah. Cervis."

"You know each other?"

"Of course! The only member of that club I actually respect. Go on, bring me to him."

Gariks held the communicator up to Cervis so the two could speak. The music and talking was too loud for Gariks to hear the two speak. Out of the corner of one of his eyes he saw Cervis looked towards the window. He saw Spider in the window wave to the two.

"Go ahead Gariks," Cervis said, "try not to kill Azilis."

Gariks nodded and shoved the communicator back in his pocket and walked through the door that Cervis held open. He tossed Cervis a small cube of glimmer before turning away.

As Gariks walked through the hallway he entered a room with a large chest in the middle. He heard a voice through another door.

"Damnit, what do I pay that Cervis for!? Kill that intruder so I may get back to business!"

Gariks unsheathed his shock swords as the next door opened. Four Wretches entered the room with their staffs pointed at Gariks.

"Ha ha! Wretches? That the best you can do Azilis?" Gariks called, "I only want to talk business!"

"Business you say?" Azilis responded, "who sent you?"

"The Spider."

"Oh what does that overweight slime want now!? Come in, guards stand down."

The Wretches held their staffs up, but still looked ready to fight. They stood in two lines on the sides of the door, and Gariks walked through it. In front of him was a throne surrounded by four torches.

"You aren't one of his associates! Who are you? You wear the colours of no house!" Azilis yelled to Gariks, who stood in front of him.

"My armour was scavenged with little time to alter it," Gariks said, "let's just get this over with and you will be left alone."

"Ah ha! You are not like Spider! So, what does he want?"

Gariks pulled the communicator back out from his pocket and called Spider. He made sure it was as loud as it could possibly be. Azilis' room was mostly empty, but it was still big.

"Oh we meet again," Spider said.

"Get it over with," Azilis called, sounding annoyed.

"I uh, need one of your rooms. Preferably an empty one."

"Oh, not a chance! This is what you came here to waste my time with!? Get out of here before I kill your associate here!"

"Oh, I know you're no stranger to business," Spider said, sounding completely calm, "I'm sure we can work this out."

Azilis sat in his throne, thinking.

"Alright, I have a room. It is small, easily accessible but hidden in plain sight. Now this time I get to make demands! I want two of your Servitors, three full crates of Ether, and five hundred thousand glimmer!"

"All for a small room?"

"I told you, hidden in plain sight. And you take everything from me, why don't I take some things from you?"

"Alright, fine. I'll send everything your way in a few minutes, and then you can have someone show me to the room."

"You better send everything. Go on associate, get out of here!"

Gariks turned off the communicator, shoved it in his pocket, and walked out the way he came.


	17. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

THE WILDS

EUROPEAN DEAD ZONE, EARTH

"Oh, little lightbearer," Araskes teased the Warlock, "all we want to do is kill your friends!"

The Warlock was hanging from the ceiling of the Skiff's troop bay. She was stripped of her weapons, and her Ghost. Pirrha held the Ghost in the cage as they flew over the forests of the EDZ.

Before the Guardian could give one of her smart remarks the Skiff shook violently.

"Pirrha what are you doing?" Araskes sneered.

"Oh it seems we have guests," Pirrha said without looking back at Araskes.

Pirrha kept his eyes forward while periodically taking glances at the scanner. There were multiple red blips clustered together, couldn't be Guardians. They never travelled like that. He then opened up one of the Skiff's back cameras and saw their enemy. A Red Legion Harvester.

It was following the Skiff intently, but it only fired its weapon a few times. Pirrha managed to dodge each shot, but he didn't want to shake their pursuers off. He wanted to fight, but he wasn't an excellent pilot.

"Araskes," he called, "you can fly this thing right?"

"Of course I can," Araskes said, walking into the cockpit.

"Well then fly it."

Pirrha let go of the controls and stood up. Right after he left the cockpit, Araskes sat down and took over the controls. Pirrha used his corrupted Ether powers to teleport to the top of the Skiff.

He held his crossbow firmly in his hands and crouched. He aimed at the metal connecting the turret to the ship, and fired the crossbow. The shot seared through the metal, cleanly detaching the turret from the ship.

Pirrha then looked at the glass in the cockpit. He could just barely see through it.

He saw the Psion pilot holding the controls in the middle of the T-shaped glass. He charged his crossbow and fired. The shot went right through the glass, and the pilot's head.

The Harvester began to slow down, and eventually crash into the trees below. He hoped the crash killed all of the Cabal in the ship.

He checked the skies to make sure that they were his only pursuers, and teleported back inside.

"Araskes, set the ship down somewhere open," Pirrha said, looking at the tired Guardian, "and unhook the lightbearer."

"What are you doing?" Araskes asked.

"I think I know how to get our Guardian to talk."

He grabbed the caged Ghost and held it in his lower left hand, smiling at the scared Guardian who realized what was happening.

SPIDER'S SAFEHOUSE

THE TANGLED SHORE, THE REEF

"Well, it definitely is small," Spider said, looking around the room while Rian and John brought in a few crates.

Spider had entered his new home, and he brought his associates Arrha and Avrok. They didn't seem like much talkers.

"Looks like we're done," John said once he pushed the last crate into its spot.

"Yep. You Guardians can go, I'll let my associates do the rest," the Spider said, resting in his new makeshift throne.

Rian bowed, and followed John to the exit.

"Oh, and Azzir!" Spider called before she left, "thank you for this. If you ever need a favour just call me and I'll take care of it."

"Oh, it was my pleasure," Rian said, bowing again, "I hope I won't need any favours."

"Heh. Me too."

Rian caught up with John while they left. Gariks had been on the ship after the deal with Azilis. He said he was hooking the cube from Heft's head to something that would keep him alive.

Once they left, Moira began to zap at a console. After a few seconds a wall of rocks appeared over the opening that lead to Spider's safehouse.

"Man it's been a long day," John sighed.

"Long week too," Rian said, walking along with John, "I honestly can't wait to make it back to the farm."

"Well, if there is anything I learned this week, it's that some Fallen are pretty damn cool."

Rian laughed as they made it to the edge of a rock to transmat into their ship. But before they were able to, they heard an all too familiar noise. A noise that grew louder with each second.

The two Guardians quickly looked behind them and saw corrupted Ether forming. The other Eliksni at Thieves Landing were staring too.

The undead Eliksni started appearing everywhere, and they started fighting the normal Eliksni.

"Aw shit," John exclaimed, loading his slug rifle, "here we go again."


End file.
